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| Aerial view CC SA-BY 4.0 C.Stadler/Bwag |
St Florian will always remind me of Bruckner. In August 1967 I wrote "we drove out of Linz to the monastery of St Florian, about 10 miles southeast.. Here lies the tomb of Anton Bruckner , beneath the organ he played so brilliantly. The monastery is a huge and imposing structure and the adjoining church is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I shall never forget it and for me one of the highlights of the holiday was to gaze in silent admiration at the sight of Bruckner's tomb. After that we returned to the caravan and had an evening meal of of tinned "Country supper" followed by a tin of cherries".
St Florian was an official in the Roman province in present day Lower Austria during the reign of Domitian. It was a time of persecution in 304 and Florian's defence of local Christians led to his own torture and death, by being attached to a very large stone and thrown into the river. A local believer, Valeria, managed to save his body and it was buried in a beech grove near present day St Florian.In 488 the body and of other local saints were moved to Rome for safety. Florian is also popular in Poland. Only in the 18th century with pilgrimage at its height at St Florian did Provost Johann Georg get a portion of Florian relics back. St Florian has become known as a protector from fire - popular with Fire Brigades. There may have been a church at St Florian in the 8th century but the usual date for foundation of a convent for Augustinian canons is 1071. The collegiate church was consecrated in 1091.The remains of some 6000 local Christians were buried in the convent.(More of this later). Provost Leopold Zehetner 's time(1612-46) was one of recovery, including the growth of the library to 4000 books, despite the depredations of the Thirty Years War He was in favour of replacing the Gothic church, but it was under Provost David Fuhrmann (1667-89) that a new Collegiate Church was commissioned from the Italian Carlo Antonio Carlone, and the foundation stone laid in 1686.with flourishes of trumpets and trombones (the bill for them exists!).
Over the next 70 years the monastery was transformed. The complex got bigger and bigger under Fuhremann's five successors.The Augustinian canons were well known for engagement in scientific work When Emperor Joseph II reformed monasteries, St Florian was threatened with closure. Fortunately this was avoided but their estates were in the Wachau were forfeit along with the church treasure. Although avoiding secularisation, St Florian had to deal with financial problems. Nevertheless it kept its status as a spiritual scientific centre in the first half of the 19th century and acted as a cradle of modern historiography. In the 20th century it has been used for a number of other purposes, including a broadcasting station, wine cellar, and an HQ for US Army in 1945. In 1948 the canons returned.
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| The Collegiate Church (http://www.stift-st-florian.at/en/home.html) |
Carlone built his new twin-towered basilica to directly replace the medieval church. It has a calotte over the crossing (like skull cap - dome without drum) and sail vaults in the nave. In the nave the stucco work is by his brother, Bartolomeo Carlone. (reminiscent of Passau Cathedral). The panels in the ceiling were meant to be stucco but the new Provost wanted frescos. Therefore Carlone used illusionist architectural painting by Johann Anton Gumpp and Melchior Steidl. The high altar by Giovanni Battist Colomba of red Salzburg marble is embellished with statues of saints by Giuseppe Boni. The superb canons' choir stalls by Linz sculptor Adam Franz date from 1690. Choral music was very important in the lives of the canons.
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| Marmorsaal (http://www.stift-st-florian.at/en/home.html) |
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| The magnificent Library (http://www.stift-st-florian.at/en/home.html) |
Prandtauer took over on Carlone's death in 1708. Carlone's plans for the design of the convent were much changed. Under him the Imperial rooms for important visitors were created. The Marmorsaal glorifies Prince Eugen's victories over the Turks with huge frescos by Bartolomeo Altomonte. Gotthard Hayberger's Library (1744-51) with undulating bookcases by J.C.Jegg has ceiling frescos of the Blessings coming from the marriage of Virtue and Wisdom.
The main organ by Franz Xaver Krismann from Laibach was built 1770-4 and is now known as the Bruckner organ. It was rebuilt in the 19th century and completely overhauled after the Second World War. Anton Bruckner has always been one of my favourite composers. I have loved his music since the 1960s when it was nowhere near so popular. Since then I have been fortunate enough to hear the great symphonies conducted by great conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, Gunther Wand and greatest of all, Eugen Jochum.
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Imperial rooms
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| Pope Pius VI slept in this bed on his visit to Vienna to meet Emperor Joseph II https://trudymason.com/tag/anton-bruckner-sarcophagus/ |
On the tour of the monastery I was shown the great staircase by Prandtauer, the Marmorsaal, and the series of state room. These are particularly interesting because in most other monasteries such rooms have been altered,and their contents lost. Here we get a real idea of the how they looked in the 18th century.The 16 rooms - large and small- evoke the era of Charles VI and Maria Teresa. In one of them is the bed in which Bruckner died with a haunting photo of him in the bed. My father aged 92 had only recently died...... The tour continued into the "Tomb" area or charnel house, to which the thousands of skeletons of early Christians had been moved. Bruckner had a fascination with death and dead people. It was a spooky place and above I could hear a choir singing. We emerged into the Church and it was empty - no sign of singers or choir. ......
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| This is the Bruckner room, bed and photo just before he died. |
Later on I had a typical Austrian lunch in the nice restaurant in the cloister. A couple of choir boys passed by and I felt a little reassured of my sanity. However, for me, these Baroque monasteries have an air of mystery, always.
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| The Bruckner Organ CC BY-SA 4.0 C.Stadler/Bwag Unusually in this post I have not just Creative Commons photos. I hope that Stift St Florian will appreciate my motives and see this post as an incentive to visit. Trudy Mason's photos are amazing and she has done a far better job than I of recording her visit. |
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