The Order Bearbeiten
Wilhering Abbey near Linz in Upper Austria belongs to the monastic order of the Cistercians. This name is taken from Cîteaux, near Dijon in eastern France, where a monastery was founded in 1098. Robert, the Abbot of Molesme, worried by the increasing affluence of his house, left it to found another monastery at Cîteaux. There he and his successors in office, Alberic and the Englishman Stephen Harding had as their goal a strict interpretation of the Benedictine Rule, avoiding the worldly affluence of the Benedictine and Cluniac houses. There was a greater emphasis on manual work and the self-sufficiency of the community. In 1112 Bernard and some 30 companions joined the abbey of Cîteaux; three years later he became abbot of the new foundation at Clairvaux. From this time the order spread rapidly throughout Europe, largely due to Bernard’s international reputation as the greatest spiritual force in the Church. More than 500 abbeys were founded by the end of the 12th century, and another 150 in the following century. Despite the precautions against corruption laid down in the "Carta Caritatis", which governed the order, sanctity brought patronage, bequests and affluence, and these meant that decline was inevitable. As a result there were serious attempts at reform. The most famous was the Trappist reform of 1664, which was based on a very strict interpretation of the original Rule. During the Reformation the order lost approximately 460 monasteries, and another drastic anti-monastic campaign was waged in the Age of Enlightenment. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790) dissolved 700 monasteries, among them twelve Cistercian abbeys. In spite of that, the number of vocations increased again after the Second World War – a trend that unfortunately no longer continues in Europe. In keeping with the times the old monastic orders looked for new chances to engage in such Church activities as missionary work and education, as did the Cistercians.
The Abbey Bearbeiten
Wilhering Abbey was founded in 1146 by two young knights, Ulric and Colo, who had transferred their castle at Wilhering (together with the surrounding estates in the Danube valley) to the Styrian Cistercian abbey of Rein for the foundation of an affiliated house. In those days nearly all the members of the order were of noble descent. Being landlords, the monks were entrepreneurs, letting estates to the dependant peasants and receiving rent and service in return. It was up to them to take care of law, order and security on their estates. The monks mostly exercised these rights by patronage placed into the hands of the founders’ family. Decades later, the nobles of Schaunberg became patrons. It was probably that kind of overlordship as well as the harsh living conditions at Wilhering that made the monks of Rein leave the new foundation after thirty-nine years. In 1185, Wilhering was resettled by monks of Ebrach, an abbey near Würzburg in Germany. They were more successful than the monks of Rein.
Later the Cistercians of Wilhering established four daughter-houses: Hohenfurth, today in the Czech Republic (1258), Engelszell in Upper Austria (1295), Säusenstein in Lower Austria (1334) and Apolo in the Bolivian mission territory (1928).
The monastic buildings of the Cistercians were to be constructed, as closely as was possible, in likeness of the "mother house" at Cîteaux: The entire monastery premises had to be surrounded by a wall. The main axis of the church had to be on an east-west line. The cloister, the "heart of the monastery", was to adjoin the southern front of the church. The chapter hall and the common room had to be placed in the east section of the cloister. Upstairs there was the monks’ dormitory connected by stairs with the church and the cloister. In the southern section of the cloister lay the monks’ refectory, and in front of it, projecting into the cloister, a pavilion with a washing-fountain, called the "fountain-chapel". The lay-brothers’ refectory and dormitory were placed in the western range of the cloister, and the kitchen was in the south-western corner. The section of the cloister next to the church was used as a lecture-hall and had to be furnished with a pulpit. This ground plan was also retained in the Baroque layout of Wilhering Abbey. The prestigious buildings, however, which had been planned to surround the outer court of the abbey, were meant as extensions.
We know nothing of the buildings erected at Wilhering by the monks of Rein. The monks of Ebrach, however, started building a church in 1195. Of that church, built in the Romanesque style and rebuilt repeatedly during the following centuries, only the portal and the two Gothic "Schaunberg-tombs" (located on either side of the entrance by the western wall of the abbey church) remain today.
Originally access to the church was forbissen to the public, in keeping with the wish of the Cistercians for seclusion. However, for their tenantry they erected a special church, the so-called "people’s church", known from an old engraving in the cloister, which also shows the guesthouse by the road, the fish-pond, the gate-house with the monastery wall and the garden with the mill. Today the fish-pond, the guesthouse and parts of the gate-house still remain. The guesthouse is considered one of the oldest parts of the monastery buildings. It was the abbey inn until 1970, and now houses a museum of modern art exhibiting works of the painter Fritz Fröhlich. Along with the former wine cellalrs and the brewery, which ceased operation around 1930, it is now separated from the main building complex by a road.
A black day in Wilhering’s history was 6 March 1733, when a catastrophic arson attack destroyed the abbey. The fire was set to the monastery by a twelve-year-old girl egged on by an idle farmhand. Abbot Johann Baptist Hinterhölzl (1734-1750) rebuilt the church by making use of the remnants of walls. During the following years, however, it was designed magnificently, and the lavish rococo interior decoration has especially contributed to its great fame up to this day.
The present abbey buildings comprise the medieval nucleus (with the church, the cloister and the quadrangular buildings of the convent), the extensions from the Baroque period (with the abbatial suite, the domed wing, the stables, barns and farm buildings) as well as the new buildings of the grammar school erected after World War II (the school, which was founded in 1895, presently offers general education to approximately 450 boys and girls). To the west lies the abbey park, open to the public, with its stock of exotic trees and the Baroque pavilion. Further on are the greenhouses of the floricultural nursery, which also belong to the abbey.
In 1940, Wilhering Abbey was expropriated by the Nazis, and the monks were expelled. Some were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The then abbot, Dr. Bernhard Burgstaller, was also imprisoned and died of starvation in 1941. In 1945, the monks returned to resume monastic life and to reopen the grammar school.
At present the business enterprises of the abbey (mainly forestry, farming and greenhouses) provide a sound economic basis for the monastery. In former times the site on the Danube furnished the abbey with additional revenues from fishing and ferry rights. Kürnberg Forest (Kürnberger Wald), owned by the abbey and situated between Wilhering and Linz, forms a green belt that is highly beneficial to the people of the region.
The Church Bearbeiten
According to the German art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, "the abbey church of Wilhering is the most brilliant achievement of the Rococo style in the German-speaking area. It gives the impression that more decoration, colour, sculptures, paintings and stuccowork could not be found in a single place. The Baroque dream that heavenly light-heartedness and timeless happiness can be brought down to earth, a dream which in the Rococo period reached its nearly unrestrained climax, has come true at Wilhering. Moreover, all the single items are in harmony and seem to be connected in some way: the altars, the pulpit, the two organs, the choir stalls, the putti (i.e. young boys, often winged, in Renaissance and Baroque art) and the frescoes with numerous saints, with clouds and the blue sky. These artists had a uniform feeling for style and taste."
The ground-plan of the present church is the same as that of the old church before 1733. Johann Haslinger, a little known master mason from Linz, was entrusted with the building supervision by Abbot Hinterhölzl. The abbot engaged various freelance artists to carry out the programme for the decoration, which is recorded in a banderol in the ceiling fresco of the chancel: „Assumpta est Maria in caelum, gaudent angeli“ (Mary is taken up to Heaven, the angels shout for joy).
The well-known Baroque painter Martino Altomonte, who was over eighty during his commission, created the altar-pieces within six years. According to a Cistercian custom, the high altar-piece is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The two anterior altar-pieces, placed nearest to the high altar, refer to Mary’s work in the Benedictine (left) and Cistercian (right) Orders. The pictures in the two middle altars show the death of St Joseph(left) and the guardian angel (right). Both altar-pieces at the back are dedicated to the „Fourteen Holy Helpers“ (die 14 Nothelfer): the holy virgins (left) and the intercessors for agriculture (right). The paintings represent Late Baroque Italian Classicism.
The fresco-painter was Martino Altomonte’s son, Bartolomeo. Although he was a lesser artist, he directed the greatest attention to frescoing the ceilings. In a way it was Bartolomeo’s endeavour to create a perfect heavenly illusion, the desire to create a "new Heaven", according to St John’s vision in the „Book of Revelation“. According to the abbot’s wish, the frescoes had to be similar to those of Spital am Pyhrn, showing Mary ascending to the glory of Heaven. The angels, the whole world and the saints of Heaven were to take part in Our Lady’s triumph, assumption and coronation. Bartolomeo Altomonte succeeded in painting a fresco of more than 450 m2 (approximately 540 sq yd). This extensive ceiling fresco is characteristic of the specific atmosphere in the church. The painting mainly shows saints related to the Cistercian Order, who are arranged in groups. The transition from fresco to plastic decoration is fluid. The richly gilded frames of stucco take up the liveliness of the picture and pass it on to the periphery of the vault. The transept shows frescoes praising the Virgin Mary in an allegorical manner. The idea is that grace will be heaped upon those who venerate Mary, and that all continents are united with her by the virtues of faith, hope and charity. The fresco in the flat cupola of the crossing is a combined work by the Italian painter of architectural perspective, Messenta, and Altomonte. The picture is an allegory of Mary’s triumph over sin and the sinner’s due punishment, symbolized by mankind chained to the globe. The frescoes in the presbytery and below the organ-loft show angels playing musical instruments in honour of the Queen of Heaven. The fresco of the Grundemann Chapel is complementary to the altar-piece of the chapel, whose subject is the wiping out of the original sin by Christ’s redeeming blood. In the centre of the fresco there is the Christ Child being offered the instruments of Christ’s Passion.
The Austrian stuccoer Franz Josef Holzinger of St. Florian was commissioned to do the stucco work (1739-1741). However, he was forced to interrupt his work by the War of the Austrian Succession, and his commission was later discontinued, as his stuccoing was unsatisfactory. The work was continued by the Augsburg-born master stuccoers, Johann Michael Feichtmayr and Johann Georg Ueblherr, two members of the Wessobrunn School. They applied the then highly admired and fashionable "rocaille-cartouche" ornamentation, redecorated Holzinger’s stuccoing with great skill, created the lively curved retables surrounding the large altar-pieces, and fashioned the pulpit as well as the casing of the choir organ. They also furnished the continuous main cornice with red stuccoed marble and all the pilasters with the same material in an elegant grey. Moreover, Ueblherr himself created the sixteen life-sized statues of saints for the altars, the figures of the Holy Trinity above the high altar, the statue of St Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous abbot of the Cistercians, for the sounding-board of the pulpit and the royal harpist David above the choir organ. It was also Feichtmayr and Ueblherr who placed the numerous glazed stucco putti and angels’ heads throughout the church.
They sent for the gilder Johann Georg Frueholz of Munich, who was known to them, to Provide the final gloss to the interior of the church by gilding it abundantly. In the meantime the two lay-brothers of Wilhering, Eugen Dymge and Johann Baptist Zell, carved the choir-stalls and the pews.
The choir organ, a counterpart of the pulpit, was made in 1746 by Nikolaus Rumel the elder. The famous Austrian composer Anton Bruckner counted it among his favourites. The main organ, with its Baroque casing, is the decorative highlight at the back of the church. It was made in 1883 by Leopold Breinbauer and now has thirty-eight stops.
The essential work of decorating and furnishing was completed in 1748. At that time the monastery’s debts amounted to 122,000 Austrian Florins, a sum equivalent to the value of 10,000 cows. The latest overall restoration of the church took place between 1971 and 1977 under the artistic direction of Prof. Fritz Fröhlich.
The mystery of this abundantly and solemnly decorated space lies in the interplay of many single decorative elements. The beauty displayed here is likely to disclose itself best to those who do not analyse the details, but appreciate the whole interior in its entirety.
The prominent attraction of the abbey’s outer court is the west facade with the tower and, to the right, the abbatial suite. The tower was erected between 1735 and 1740. It consists of three storeys, which, due to their upward tapering, resemble an extended telescope. It is adorned with rich figural decorations. The plain round-arched Romanesque portal of the former 12th century church was integrated into the present Rococo church.