Reichersberg Abbey () is a monastery of the Innviertel Congregation of the Austrian Augustinian Canons. It lies on the

Inn River The Inn (; ; ) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The long river is a right tributary of the Danube, being the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is the summit of Piz Berni ...

in Reichersberg, Upper Austria.

History

Original monastery

The nobleman Wernher von Reichersberg converted his possessions into a monastery in the 11th century. It has been owned by Augustinian Canons since then. Wernher and his wife Dietburga donated their castle to the canons regular for use as a monastery in 1084 after their only son Gebhard died young. In the first few decades of its existence the monastery went through several changes of hands. Although the monastery lay within the

diocese of Passau The Diocese of Passau (; ) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.diocese of Salzburg. The Archbishop Conrad I of Salzburg, who "tolerated no hireling or dissolute priests", appointed the like-minded Gerhoh provost of the monastery in 1132. Conrad gave various tithes to Reichersberg, "except for the canonical portion of the parish priests". He reserved the right to dispose of the priest's portion to avoid disputes with the canons. The monastery flourished under the guidance of Gerhoh, the third Provost and an eminent theologian. While there, Gerhoh composed his commentary on the Psalms between 1144 and 1148, making much use of the earlier work of Gilbert of Poitiers. When Gerhoh wrote his ''Inquiry into the Antichrist'' in 1662, he had been provost of Reichersberg for thirty years. Gerhoh died in 1169. His successor

Arno The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. Source and route The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a sou ...

, also a distinguished scholar, died in 1175. Arno was the brother of Gerhoh, and author of ''Scutum Canonicorum Regularium'' and other works. Gerhoh's pupil,

Magnus Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

, wrote a history of the abbey from 1167 to 1195. The archbishop of Salzburg gave the abbey a pastoral area on what was then the Hungarian border, where the canons are active to this day. In the mid 16th century master Ulrich Lufftenecker became a teacher at the monastery, and taught students choral singing. Four printed choir books have survived from the second half of the 16th century.

Later history

The original monastery was relatively small, built in Romanesque- Gothic style. In 1624 it was destroyed by a fire. During the years that followed a large baroque replacement was erected. These buildings stand today. A new organ was made by A. Butz in 1638. It was destroyed in 1774 by collapse of the tower in which it was installed. The outer courtyard of the monastery has a marble fountain crowned with a figure of St. Michael, the patron of the monastery, made by Thomas Schwanthaler. The Munich court painter Christian Wink completed the frescoes of the church in 1778-79. The monastery holds the work of other artists including Josef Matthias Götz, Franz Ignaz Holzinger and Giovanni Battista Carlone. In 1779 the monastery was assigned to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and thus escaped the secularization of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n monasteries. During the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

it had to struggle for its existence. In 1810 the monastery was placed under administration. Normal monastic activities resumed in 1817. In 1883 the collegiate church organ was widened following the plans of organist J. E. Habert. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(1939-1945) the monastery was forced to provide a home for a flying school, but avoided being closed down.

Today

As of 2013 there were about twenty canons at the abbey. The monastery has been renovated and is now a cultural center of the Innviertels. The monastery has an extensive library, holding 55,000 volumes. It holds a large collection of religious art, which can be viewed during guided tours. In 2002 a painting of the ''Massacre of the Innocents'', which was on loan, was found to be a genuine

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

. It was later sold for over €75 million. The monastery holds exhibitions, seminars and garden days. It has a shop, a wine shop and restaurant. There is accommodation for seminar attendees.

Gallery

File:Reichersberg abbey, general view-1.JPG, General view, in 2013 File:Reichersberg abbey, general view-2.JPG, General view, in 2013 File:Reichersberg Stift Arkaden Portal detail.jpg, portal in the arcade File:Reichersberg Herrengarten 3.jpg, Garden File:Reichersberg Stift Hof 7.jpg, Turret File:Reichersberg Stift Portal.jpg, Portal File:Reichersberg Stift Arkaden.jpg, Arcade File:Reichersberg Stift Arkaden Portal.jpg, portal in the arcade File:Reichersberg Stiftskirche Blick zum Chor.jpg, Church interior File:Reichersberg Stiftskirche Beichtstuhl.jpg,

Confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Luther ...

File:Reichersberg Stiftskirche Kanzel 1.jpg, Pulpit, attributed to Joseph Matthias Götz, 1718 File:Reichersberg Stiftskirche Fresken Trompe-l-oeil Fenster.jpg, ''

Trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' painting of a window

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reichersberg Abbey Augustinian monasteries in Austria Establishments in the Margraviate of Austria