The baroque Ettal Benedictine monastery with its basilica is in the Graswang valley Ammer Mountains in the municipality of the same name. It is located between Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
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background
The political municipality Ettal consists of the Ettal Abbey and the neighboring village Graswang. Other parts of the community are Linderhof Palace, Dickelschwaig and cream.
Monastery history
Grave finds from the 6th and 7th centuries AD prove that the area was already settled during the Merovingian times.
The foundation day for the monastery is April 28, 1330. The founder is Emperor Ludwig IV, known as the "Baier". The founding motive of his foundation could have been, in addition to the ostensible salvation of the emperor's soul, also the subtle securing of the trade routes across the Alps after returning from an Italian train. An indication of this is the documented "rule of knights" for the monastery of a "new and unbelievable kind" (lat. Monasterium nove consuetudinis et acentus inaudite), which in addition to a monk's and a women's convent also housed a knight's convent with 12 knights. This suggests a very well-fortified monastery community. The focus of the foundation was a picture of the Madonna given to the monastery by the emperor, which he brought back from Italy.
In the further Middle Ages the monastery was rather insignificant compared to other Bavarian abbeys, and in May 1552 it was victim of a raid by the troops of Elector Moritz von Sachsen with great damage to the monastery and its residents.
The heyday of the monastery is then in the 17th century with the pilgrimage to "our lady founder" growing in strength. This was expressed in the establishment of a "knight academy" as the beginning of the school tradition in Ettal monastery, and in the redesign of the monastery church and other extensive construction work under the Ettal abbot Placidus II (in office from 1709-1736). As a result of these measures, the monastery complex was given the baroque design that was contemporary at the time and has been preserved to this day.
In 1803 the monastery was secularized in the wake of the French Revolution, the buildings were partly devastated and then privatized, the property fell to the state and was partly sold on.
It was not until 1900 that the Scheyarn Abbey and the owner of the monastery at that time, Baron Theodor von Cramer-Klett, re-founded the Benedictine monastery.
Today the monastery community runs a number of commercial operations, including a bakery, a monastery brewery with liqueur production, a monastery inn and a publishing house, agriculture and forestry, hotel and holiday apartments and other craft businesses, making it one of the largest employers in the area.
The successful activity of the monastery in modern times is also evidenced by a newly established branch in Wechselburg, close by Chemnitz in Saxony. Here the Ettal Abbey has re-established a monastery with four confreres that was closed during the Reformation.
The convent of the monastery now has over 50 members.
getting there
By plane
The next major airport is Munich Airport
(IATA: MUC) "Franz Josef Strauss" close Munich and the airport in innsbruck.
In the street
- Of east (Munich, Garmisch): About the Federal motorway 95 Munich - Garmisch to the end, then continue towards Garmisch on the B 2. In Oberau (on Bundesstraße 2 after the end of the Munich-Garmisch motorway) at the traffic lights (this is the one known for the "Bayern-3 weit" Traffic jam near Eschenlohe is responsible) turn right onto federal road 23 to Ettal (Oberammergau).
- Of west (Neuschwanstein, Füssen, Reutte): In Reutte, turn off the federal road 179 in the direction of Oberammergau (Garmisch), then via Linderhof Castle and Graswang to Ettal Abbey.
- Of NorthwestLandsberg am Lech via the B 17 bis Schongau, continue on the B 23 towards Rottenbuch and on to Oberammergau. From there on to Ettal.
By train
The nearest train station is in Oberammergau.
mobility
The area of the monastery is manageable and can easily be visited on foot.
The RVO (Regionalverkehr Oberbayern) looks after the bus routes in the region, RVO-Bus.de.
- Line 9607 Ettal - Ohlstadt - Murnau;
- Line 9622 Oberammegau - Ettal - Linderhof;
Tourist Attractions
The building complex
The origin of today's monastery complex is the square around a monastery courtyard with the church as a twelve-sided central building, which was built between 1400 and 1700.
In the course of the Baroque transformation in the 17th century, the complex was redesigned into a three-courtyard complex. The first phase of the construction work on the church and monastery complex was destroyed by a fire in 1744.
The reconstruction of the complex and the church took place in the form of the high baroque according to plans of the two architects Enrico Zuccalli from Graubünden (court architect in Munich) and the Wessobrunn master builder Josef Schmutzer (1713-1775). The monastery church of St. Mary of the Assumption has had the honorary title of minor basilica since 1920.
The church interior
The basilica is a twelve-sided domed building in baroque style, with a vestibule and an attached high altar room in sober style. The stucco decorations come from the Wessobrunners Johann Georg Übelher (1703-1763) and Franz Xaver Schmuzer, the frescoes from the two Tyroleans Johann Jakob Zeitler ( 1708-1783) from Reutte and Martin Knoller (1725-1804);
Sights inside the church are:
- the Monastery organ, built around 1753 by Joh. Georg Hörtich from Dirlewang near Mindelheim, has survived the destruction of secularization.
- the Dome fresco by J.J. Zeiler (1748-1751), subject: "The saints and the blessed of the Benedictine order in heavenly glory".
- the High altar room with the high altar, erected in 1785 by Joseph Lindner and four wooden reliefs on the walls of the high altar, made by Roman Anton Boos in 1790.
- the Choir dome painting by Martin Knoller (1769) on the high altar room, subject: "Christ receives his mother in a circle of Old Testament figures".
- a total of six Side altars and four Confessionals.
The outdoor facilities of the monastery and the church are freely accessible during the day.
shop
In the monastery shop and the other souvenir shops there are, in addition to the usual tourist supplies, religious articles and the brewery and liqueur products of the monastery. Since 2007, high-quality own products and specialties from monasteries in the region have been offered in its own monastery market.
- At the exit towards Oberammergau (near the large car park) there is a bakery with a pastry shop and a selection of foods, including fresh products.
- Show dairy Ammergau Alps, Mandlweg 1, 82488 Ettal (on the eastern wall of the monastery). Tel.: 49(0)88 22 92 39 26. Tasting and sales of cheese and other dairy products from the region, guided tours.Open: The. to Sat .: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun .: 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- Various stores and shops offer Wood carvings on, the selection ranges from religious motifs to the "Wurzelsepp" to the regionally rather untypical windmills.
accommodation
- In the hotel business Ludwig the Bavarian of the monastery (with holiday apartments).
- the next larger place with numerous guest beds is Oberammergau.
- The next Post office is located in Oberammergau.
trips
- These are local mountains directly above Ettal Ettaler Mandl (above easy via ferrata) and the Babble, can be reached in two or two and a half hours ascent.
- to the near Linderhof Palace or after Neuschwanstein, the world-famous royal castle in Schwangau at Feet.
- In the cities Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald or a little further Munich or innsbruck.
- In the surrounding Ammer Mountains, in the neighboring Ester Mountains, in the Wetterstein Mountains with the Zugspitze or in the Allgäu Alps.
- In the Pfaffenwinkel with the Wieskirche and the monastery churches in Steingaden and Rottenbuch.
literature
- Ettal basilica, Klosterführer, 2nd edition 1996; ISBN 3-87112-074-X ; available on site;
Web links
- Ettal Benedictine Abbey, official website of the monastery: Ettal Abbey. There you will also find all the links to the art publisher, the hotel "Ludwig der Bayer", the Benedictine high school Ettal and the Ettal monastery liqueurs.
- Ettal Abbey Library: Ettal.de library.
- Ettal municipality with grass cheek: Ettal.de.
- Life in the monastery: Abtei-Ettal.de.
- Monastery brewery, also responsible for the monastery liqueurs: Klosterbrauerei-Ettal.de.
- Boarding school of the Ettal Benedictine Abbey, Boarding school for boys: Internat-Ettal.de.
- Wechselburg Benedictine monastery - Priory monastery of Ettal Abbey in Saxony: Kloster-Wechselburg.de.
- House of Bavarian History (hdbg.de) : Monasteries in Bavaria, Ettal Monastery.
