Corbie Abbey
Corbie is a former monastery in the eponymous French town of Corbie in the Somme Valley.
History
The monastery was founded Corbie 657-661 of the Merovingian queen Balthild and richly endowed with almost 22,000 ha of land.
In the Carolingian period Corbie was an important royal monastery. His library and scriptorium ( writing room ) had great cultural significance. To 765 came in the scriptorium from Corbie to a momentous correspondence: The half-uncial of Leutchar type was replaced by the Carolingian minuscule. Because of its clear form the Carolingian minuscule was the royal court favor and spread of Corbie out soon over the whole Frankish kingdom. After Leutchars successor, the Abbot Maurdramnus, ie, a mature form of the early Carolingian minuscule Maurdramnus - minuscule.
Maurdramnus ' successor, the abbots Adalhard ( Abbot of Corbie 780-826 ) and his half-brother Wala ( Abbot of Corbie 826-836 ) played an important political role. 815 they founded Corbie from Hethis and later the monastery of Corvey, which was originally called " Corbeia nova", New Corbie.
Another abbot of Corbie, Paschasius Radbertus (Abt 843/44-851 ) was a major theologian of his time. According to the latest research results of medievalists Klaus Zechiel -gon Paschasius Radbertus was also author of the Pseudo- Decretals, a forgery, which the historian John Haller has been called "the greatest scam in world history". The original purpose of the Pseudo- Decretals was to protect the bishops from the grasp of archbishops ( metropolitans ) and secular potentates; because of its provisions on the independence of the papacy, however, the popes were the main beneficiaries of this forgery in the later Middle Ages.
Abbey Church of St. Pierre
The main church of the Abbey of Corbie is built in the Gothic style and is in the list of historical monuments of France since 1919. Today, it offers only a faint image of what it represented to her wedding.
The present building is the third church, which was built on the site, and is dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. The construction was begun after the demolition of a Romanesque previous building in 1501 under the 61st Prince - Abbot of Corbie. After his often delayed completion in 1775, the ship stretched to a length of 117 m. The transepts were together 50 m long. The crossing tower reached 90 m in height.
Already in 1792, the church was sold in the course of the revolution, left to rot in the sequence and used as a quarry. In 1816 it was decided they opposed an earlier plan does not completely demolish, but smaller. Deprived of his choir and transepts, the ship has now only a length of 37 m. From the former greatness still bear witness to the vault at 25 m height, and the two monumental 55 m high west towers.
Today, the former monastery church of the Catholic community Sainte- Colette -des- Trois- Vallées serves.
West facade
The abbey church from the southeast
The vault of the nave
Abbots of Corbie
- List of abbots of Corbie