Schönau Abbey (''Kloster Schönau'') in Schönau in the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...

, in the

Rhein-Neckar-Kreis The Rhein-Neckar-Kreis is a district in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The administrative headquarters are based in the city Heidelberg, which is a district-free city. As of 2019, the district is the most populous in Baden-Würt ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, was a

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

monastery founded in 1142 from

Eberbach Abbey Eberbach Abbey (German: Kloster Eberbach) is a former Cistercian monastery in Eltville in the Rheingau, Germany. On account of its Romanesque and early Gothic buildings it is considered one of the most significant architectural heritage sites i ...

. The present settlement of Schönau grew up round the monastery.

History

Schönau Abbey was founded in 1142 by Burchard II von Asorn, Prince-Bishop of Worms, with Cistercians from Eberbach Abbey. The monastery came under the patronage of the

Counts Palatine of the Rhine Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...

. In 1156 Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt ...

conferred upon his half-brother the ''

Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

ei'' of Schönau Abbey. Around 1190,

Rudolph I, Count Palatine of Tübingen Rudolph I, Count Palatine of Tübingen (1160 – 17 March 1219) was the eldest son of Count Palatine Hugo II of Tübingen. Around 1183, he founded the Premonstratensian Bebenhausen Abbey as a burial place for his family. He married Matilda, ...

gave the Cistercians the abandoned

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

abbey of

Bebenhausen Bebenhausen is a village (pop. 347) in the Tübingen district, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Since 1974 it is a district of the city of Tübingen, its least populous one. It is located 3 km north of Tübingen proper (about 5 km northeast of the c ...

. It became a daughter house of Schönau. During the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

the abbey was dissolved, in 1558. In 1562,

Frederick III, Elector Palatine Frederick III of Simmern, the Pious, Elector Palatine of the Rhine (14 February 1515 – 16 October 1576) was a ruler from the house of Wittelsbach, branch Palatinate-Simmern- Sponheim. He was a son of John II of Simmern and inherited the Pa ...

used the empty buildings to provide housing for

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugees from

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—al ...

.Thomas, Andrew L., ''A House Divided: Wittelsbach Confessional Court Cultures in the Holy Roman Empire, C. 1550-1650'', BRILL, 2010, p. 138

Burials

By the end of the 12th century Schönau was already in use as a burial place of the

Staufen Staufen refers to: * Hohenstaufen, a dynasty of German emperors *Staufen im Breisgau, a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany *Staufen, Aargau, in Switzerland *Staufen (protein) Staufen is a protein product of a maternally expressed gene first iden ...

family: in 1195

Conrad of Hohenstaufen Conrad of Hohenstaufen ( – 8 November 1195) was the first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine. His parents were Frederick II of Swabia (1090–1147), Duke of Swabia, and his second wife Agnes of Saarbrücken, daughter of Frederick, Cou ...

Count Palatine of the Rhine The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...

, was buried here, as were his son of the same name, probably in 1186, and both his wives.

Adolf, Count Palatine of the Rhine Adolf of the Rhine (german: Adolf der Redliche von der Pfalz) (27 September 1300, Wolfratshausen – 29 January 1327, Neustadt) from the house of Wittelsbach was formally Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1319 to 1327. He was the second son of ...

(d. 1327), Rupert II, Elector Palatine (d. 1398) and other members of the family were also buried here.

Conrad II, Bishop of Hildesheim Conrad II of Reifenberg (german: Konrad II.; late 12th century – 18 December 1249)Madey, cols. 392–393 was List of Bishops of Hildesheim, Bishop of Hildesheim from 1221 to 1246. During his tenure, the Bishopric of Hildesheim was raised to an Im ...

, died here and was presumably also buried here. In the 14th century Schönau was also the burial place of the Counts of

Erbach Erbach may refer to: Places *Erbach im Odenwald, a town in Hesse, Germany *Erbach an der Donau, a town on the Danube River in Baden-Württemberg, Germany * Erbach, Rheingau, a district of Eltville, Hesse, Germany * Erbach, Rhineland-Palatinate, a m ...

Buildings

Physical remains of the abbey include the abbey church of c. 1230, and also the abbey gateway (c. 1200), the former

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the Lat ...

, and the "Walloon forge" (the former abbey forge, renovated by the Huguenot refugees from Wallonia after 1558).

References

Literature

*''Die Stadt- und Landkreise Heidelberg und Mannheim. Amtliche Kreisbeschreibung''. Heidelberg 1968 *Berendes, H.U., 1984: ''Die Bischöfe von Worms und ihr Hochstift im 12. Jahrhundert''. Diss. Köln *de Gudenus, V.F., 1728: ''Sylloge I variorum diplomatariorum monumentorumque veterum ineditorum adhuc et res germanicas in primis vero moguntinas illustrantium''. Frankfurt *Derwein, Herbert, 1931: ''Das Zisterzienserkloster Schönau. Mit den Zeichnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts aus dem Germanischen Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg''. Franzmathes: Frankfur
Online-Publikation der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
*Edelmaier, Robert, 1915: ''Das Kloster Schönau bei Heidelberg. Ein Beitrag zur Baugeschichte der Cisterzienser.'' (Dissertation TH Karlsruhe 1913). Gustav Koester: Heidelberg *Huffschmid, Maximilian: ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Cisterzienserabtei Schönau bei Heidelberg''. in: ZGO 45 (1891), pp. 415–449; ZGO 46 (1892), pp. 69–103 *Kaiser, Jürgen, and Götz von Roman, 2000: ''Schönau. Evangelische Stadtkirche, ehemalige Zisterzienserabtei.'' Schnell & Steiner: Regensburg *Kreisarchiv und Referat für Öffentlichkeitsarbeit des Rhein-Neckar-Kreises in Verbindung mit der Stadt Schönau und dem Verein Alt Schönau e.V. (ed.), 2002: ''Kloster und Hühnerfautei Schönau''. Heidelberg *Neumüllers-Klauser, Renate, 1970: ''Die Inschriften der Stadt und des Landkreises Heidelberg''. Stuttgart *Rothfuss, Virto-Christian: ''Die Schönauer Epitaphien der Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein''. in: Der Odenwald 54 (2007), pp. 99–102 *Schaab, Meinrad, 1990: ''Die Zisterzienserabtei Schönau im Odenwald'' (2nd edition). Winter: Heidelberg (Heidelberger Veröffentlichungen zur Landesgeschichte und Landeskunde, 8)

External links

Kloster Schönau: digital reconstruction of the abbey buildings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonau Abbey Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg Cistercian monasteries in Germany 1140s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1142 establishments in Europe Religious organizations established in the 1140s Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Burials sites of the House of Hohenstaufen Burial sites of the House of Wittelsbach