![Augsburg Afra 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Augsburg_Afra_4.jpg)
St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey, Augsburg (german: Kloster Sankt Ulrich und Afra Augsburg) is a former
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
abbey dedicated to
Saint Ulrich and
Saint Afra
Saint Afra (died 304) was martyred during the Diocletian persecution. Along with Saint Ulrich, she is a patron saint of Augsburg. Her feast day is August 7. Afra was dedicated to the service of the goddess, Venus, by her mother, Hilaria. Throu ...
in the south of the old city in
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
.
From the late 16th century onward, the Abbey of St. Ulrich and St Afra was one of the 40-odd self-ruling imperial abbeys of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
and, as such, was a virtually independent state. The territory of that state was very fragmented: the abbey of St. Ulrich and St Afra proper enclaved within the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, and several small territories disseminated throughout the region. At the time of its dissolution in 1802, the Imperial Abbey covered 112 square kilometers and had about 5,000 subjects.
History
The Benedictine monastery was preceded by an original foundation established at an uncertain date, but at least as early as the 10th century (and in its turn quite possibly a refoundation of a still earlier one from the 5th or 6th centuries), by the "Kollegiatstift St. Afra", a community of the
priests
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in p ...
charged with the care of St Afra's Church (now the
Basilica of Saints Ulrich and Afra), where the
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s of Saint Afra were venerated, and next door to which the community premises were built. Between 1006 and 1012,
Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, removed the canons to the
cathedral chapter
According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...
and gave the premises to Benedictine monks whom he brought from
Tegernsee Abbey
Tegernsee Abbey (German Kloster Tegernsee, ''Abtei Tegernsee'') is a former Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee in Bavaria. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around it, are named after the Tegernsee, the lake on the ...
, thus turning it into a Benedictine monastery.
Imperial Abbey
Abbot Jakob Köplin (1548–1600) succeeded in having St. Ulrich and Afra's long standing claim to
Imperial immediacy
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...
(german: Reichsfreiheit) recognized in 1577, thus confirming the abbey as a self-ruling
Imperial estate
An Imperial State or Imperial Estate ( la, Status Imperii; german: Reichsstand, plural: ') was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise si ...
, but this status was bitterly contested by the
bishops of Augsburg, and the legal conflict was resolved in favour of the abbey only in 1643/44. The abbot had a seat and a vote on the bench of the Prelates of Swabia at the Imperial Diet. During those years the abbey acquired sovereign rights over the village of
Haunstetten
Augsburg-Haunstetten, also known as Haunstetten-Siebenbrunn is one of the seventeen '' Planungsräume'' (English: Planning district, singular: Planungsraum) of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest of the seventeen Planungsräume with an ar ...
, known as ''Ulrikanisches Dorf'', ("Ulrich's village"), south of Augsburg, and a few other more distant possessions. Inside Augsburg however, St. Ulrich and Afra's sovereign rule extended only over the grounds of the abbey church and monastery. At the time of the secularization of the abbey in 1802, it owned in and near Augsburg about a hundred houses as well as gardens, meadows and mills, and the Upper Lech bridge and toll house.
[Dr Wilhelm Liebhart]
St. Ulrich und Afra
2011.
The abbey was dissolved in 1802 during the
secularisation
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. The city of Augsburg and the Duchy of Bavaria divided its territory between them. The monks however were permitted to remain in the premises of the dissolved monastery. In 1805 a
French military hospital was installed here; after six monks, including the abbot, had died of infectious diseases, the remainder moved into a private house. The hospital was replaced in 1807 by a Bavarian cavalry barracks, known as the "Ulrichskaserne".
The barracks remained here until
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when in 1944 the buildings were largely destroyed. The remains were not cleared until 1968–71. On the site the "Haus St. Ulrich" has stood since 1975, an academy and pastoral centre of the Diocese of Augsburg. The
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
es of Saint Afra and Saint Ulrich are preserved in the crypt.
Abbots of St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey
*
Regimbald (c. 1012–15)
* Dego (1015–18)
* Gotstegen (1018–20)
* Fridebold (1020–30)
* Heinrich I (1031–44)
* Tieto (1044–50)
* Adelhalm (1050–65)
* Diemar (1065–80)
* Sigehard (1080–''ca'' 1094)
* Hartmann (1094–96)
* Berengar (1096–1107)
* Adalbero (1107–09)
* Gunther (−1109)
*
Egino (1109–20)
* Wollemar (1122–26)
* Udalschalk (1127–51)
* Hezilo (1156–64)
* Ulrich I of
Biberbach (1169–74)
* Heinrich II of Meysach (1177–79)
* Manegold (1182–84)
* Heinrich III (1187–90)
* Erchenbold (1193–1200)
* Ulrich II (−1204)
* Heinrich IV of Belsheim (1213–16)
* Dietho (1221–25)
* Luitfrid (1225–30)
* Hiltibrand of Thierheim (1234–41)
* Gebwin of Thierheim (1241–66)
* Dietrich of Rodt (1277–88)
* Sibotho Stolzkirch (1288–92)
* Heinrich V von
Hagenau
Haguenau (; Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture.
It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg, some to the south. To the n ...
(1292–1315)
* Marquard von Hageln (1316–34)
* Konrad I Winkler (1334–55)
* Johannes I von Vischach (1355–66)
* Friedrich von Gummeringen (1368–79)
* Heinrich VI von Gabelbach (1382–96)
* Johannes II Lauginger (1396–1403)
* Johannes III Küssinger (1404–28)
* Heinrich VII Heutter (−1439)
* Johannes IV von Hohenstein (1439–58)
* Melchior von Stamheim (1458–74)
* Heinrich VIII Fryess (1474–82)
* Johannes V von Giltingen (1482–96)
* Konrad II Moerlin (1496–1510)
* Johannes VI Schrott (1510–27)
* Johannes VII Koenlin (1527–39)
* Heinrich von Foehr (1539–48)
* Jakob Koepplin (1548–1600)
* Johannes VIII Merk (1600–32)
* Bernhard Hertfelder (1632–64)
* Gregor I Jos (1664–74)
* Roman Daniel (1674–94)
* Willibald Popp (1694–1735)
* Coelestin Mayr (1735–53)
* Joseph Maria von Langenmantl (1753–90)
* Wikterp Grundner (1790–95)
* Gregor II Schäffler (1795–1802)
Burials
*
Simpert
Saint SimpertAlso spelled Sintbert, Sintpert, Simbert. (died 13 October 807) was an abbot, bishop, and confessor of the late-8th and early-9th centuries, and was supposedly the nephew of Charlemagne. He was educated at Murbach Abbey in Alsace, whe ...
See also
*
History of early modern period domes
Domes built in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries relied primarily on empirical techniques and oral traditions rather than the architectural treatises of the time, but the study of dome structures changed radically due to developments in mathemati ...
References
Bibliography
* Hemmerle, J., 1970. ''Die Benediktinerklöster in Bayern (= Germania Benedictina, vol. 2)'', pp. 45–50. Ottobeuren.
External links
*
*
Klöster in Bayern: St. Ulrich und Afra*
(The Role of the Parish of St. Ulrich and St. Afra in Cultivating Priests for the Diocese of Augsburg)
* Photos of the interior of the Abbey Church, in th
''Warburg Institute Iconographic Database''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Augsburg Ulrich and Afra
Monasteries in Bavaria
Buildings and structures in Augsburg
Benedictine monasteries in Germany
Christian monasteries established in the 11th century
Basilica churches in Germany
Roman Catholic churches in Bavaria
1577 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
1643 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial abbeys disestablished in 1802–03