Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Thursday 5 September 2019

The Imperial Abbey Of Saint Peter In The Black Forest. Das Reichskloster Sankt Peter Auf Dem Schwarzwald. 11th-Century To 1806.



English: Abbey of Saint Peter, The Black Forest, Bavaria, Germany.
Deutsch: Klosterkirche St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald.
Blick zum Chor. Fresken von Franz Joseph Spiegler.
Date: July 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: User:Civvi
(Wikimedia Commons)


Saint Peter's Abbey in The Black Forest, or Saint Peter's Abbey, Schwarzwald (German: Kloster St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald), is a former Benedictine Monastery in the Village of St. Peter-im-Schwarzwald, in the District of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The Monastic Community of Saint Peter's was the House Monastery and burial place of The Zähringen Family. It was founded in Weilheim, Southern Germany, in or before 1073, but was forced by hostile Military Action during The Investiture Controversy to move to Hirsau.

Duke Berthold II of Zähringen (1078–1111) Re-Founded it as a Family Monastery, but decided in about 1090 to move it to the site which is now Saint Peter-im-Schwarzwald.


English: The Imperial Abbey Of Saint Peter In The Black Forest.
11th-Century To 1806.
Deutsch: Das Reichskloster Sankt Peter Auf Dem Schwarzwald.
This File: 16 July 2005.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Here, it soon developed as a Reformed Benedictine Monastery directly answerable to The Papacy, as witness, for example, The Privilege of Pope Urban II of 10 March 1095. The Vögte (Lords Protectors) were initially The Zähringen Family, but, in the Late-13th-Century, they were succeeded by The Counts of Urach, against whom the Monks were eventually obliged to seek the protection of Emperor Charles IV. In 1526, The Office passed to The Habsburgs.

By the gift of The Zähringen Family and their Ministeriales, The Abbey acquired substantial property, particularly in the 11th- and 12th-Centuries, located in the immediate area, in the Breisgau and in the Baar Region, near Weilheim. The Abbey, like most other landowners of the time, suffered significant loss of income and tenants after the middle of the 14th-Century.


Ceiling Painting in the former Zwiefalten Abbey Church, Germany,
by Franz Joseph Spiegler (1751).
Date: March 2003.
Source: Photographed by AndreasPraefcke
Author: Franz Joseph Spiegler (1691-1757.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Abbey suffered disastrous fires in 1238 and, again, in 1437. It lost importance in the Later-Mediaeval period, and The Monastic Reforms of the 15th-Century had little effect, here. Nevertheless, it managed to keep its property intact, even through the troubles of The Reformation.

The premises were re-built in Baroque Style in the 17th- and 18th-Centuries; the present Church, with the two “Onion Towers” (“Zwiebeltürme”), was built in the 1720s. The architect was Peter Thumb, and the opulent Baroque decoration was by Franz Joseph Spiegler (fifty-five Frescoes, 1727) and Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer (Sculptures), among other artists and craftsmen. Peter Thumb also constructed the Library. The Abbey was Dissolved in the Secularisation of 1806.


Coat-of-Arms of Saint Peter's Abbey, Black Forest, Germany.
Source: Own work.
This File: 8 February 2018.
(Wikimedia Commons)


English: The Imperial Abbey Of Saint Peter In The Black Forest.
11th-Century To 1806.
Deutsch: Das Reichskloster Sankt Peter Auf Dem Schwarzwald.
Illustration: ALEMANNISCHE-SEITEN.DE


Franz Joseph Spiegler.

Franz Joseph Spiegler (5 April 1691 – 15 April 1757) was a German Baroque Painter. He is best known for his Frescoes, which decorate many of the Churches and Monasteries along The Upper Swabian Baroque Route. The Frescoes in The Zwiefalten Abbey are considered his masterpiece.

Spiegler was born in The Free Imperial City of Wangen-im-Allgäu, the son of a District Court Attorney. After the death of his father in 1692, his mother married the painter Adam Joseph Dollmann, a member of an old patrician family in Wangen.

This was Spiegler's introduction to The Arts. Around 1710, Spiegler began training as a Painter in Munich under the tutelage of his great-uncle, the Bavarian Court Painter Johann Kaspar Sing. During the course of his studies, Spiegler also became acquainted with the Historical Painting in vogue with the Dutch Painters of the time.

From 1723 to 1725, Spiegler painted Frescoes in Ottobeuren Abbey that show the strong influence of the Italian Painter Jacopo Amigoni (1682–1752). Later, he also created Frescoes and Oil Paintings for numerous Monasteries, Churches, and Castles in the Regions of Upper Swabia, Lake Constance, The Black Forest, and The Upper Rhine. In 1757, Spiegler died in Konstanz.

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