Alpirsbach Monastery owes its founding to a donation. On 16 January 1095 three noblemen gave their shared inheritance to Saint Benedict in an official ceremony. Count Alwig von Sulz, Count Adalbert von Zollern and Ruotmann von Neckarhausen donated the domain of Alpirsbach in the Black Forest together with large possessions of property and rights which lay on the upper Neckar River. A small wooden oratory was consecrated as the temporary monastery church, and Kuno von St. Blasien, who came from a reform monastery, became the first Abbot of Alpirsbach.
The early founding of the monastery by members of the aristocratic opposition to the central power of the Emperor took place before the backdrop of the great reform of Benedictine monasticism and the investiture dispute. On the one hand, the monasteries were to withdraw from their increasing secularization and renew itself in a religious spiritualization. This included the remembrance of the basic rules of the Order - personal poverty, chastity and obedience. On the other hand, the independence of the monasteries from worldly rule and its influencing of the choice of abbots and possession of the monasteries was striven for.
Monastery Church (Klosterkirche)
The Monastery Church dedicated to Saint Nikolaus was built just 30 years after the monastery's founding. The flat-roofed, three-nave monumental columned basilica stands on a cross-shaped floor plan and follows the rigid, clear order of the Romanesque style of architecture. In accordance with the liturgy of the reform monastery, the "Monks' House" (Mönchshaus) in the East and a "Laymen's House" in the West was also separated by a chancel barrier in the Alpirsbach church.
Today the Monastery Church, used today by the Protestant church, through the porch, the so-called "Paradies" and a magnificent portal. As over the course of history only relatively few changes were made, a great deal of the original aura of this house of God has been preserved.
Today the special features of this vast interior include the three painted, semicircular niches in the main chancel, the impressive capitals of the columns before the central square chancel, a Romanesque choir bench and the later Medieval high altar in the northern aisle.
|
|
|
|
Enclosure
The Alpirsbach enclosure, the area only members of the Order were permitted to enter, is almost complete preserved. It provides an insight into medieval monastery life and testifies with its diverse constructional changes to the different views of style and the many uses in the course of the over 900 years of monastery history
The East Building (Ostbau) was built adjoining the transept of the church with its east-west orientation and, as the "Dorment" building, houses the dormitory, working and common rooms of the monks. These include the Chapter Hall (Kapitelsaal - meeting room), the "Parlatorium/Auditorium" (room where speaking was allowed/lecture hall) and the "Frateria" (room for spiritual activity). In the 15th century the spacious sleeping area was converted into individual cells with a broad corridor area. The monastery gained additional sleeping cells by adding a floor to the cloister. A staircase led from the corridor directly into the chancel of the Monastery Church.
The "Kalefaktorium" (heated room) and the "Refektorium" (dining hall) with the kitchen were housed in the South Building (Südbau)of the enclosure area. Only little remains of these rooms today. A fire in the former kitchen building in the 19th century and the conversion of the Refektorium to the Catholic church in the 1950's have completely distorted the original situation.
The West Building (Westbau) opened up the enclosure area to the outside world. Here there was a large cellar storeroom (Cellarium) and the monastery und die monastery entrance. On the upper floors lay the residential rooms and offices of the abbot. They were expanded in the late Gothic conversion phase in the late 15th century. Although many traces have been covered through various uses in the post-monastic period, visitors are still provided with a good impression of the former display of splendor of these rooms today.