Ittingen Charterhouse

The Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery near the village of Warth in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. Today Ittingen is a seminar center with museums, hotels, restaurants and farm estate as well as a home and workshop for psychologically or mentally impaired people.

Unlike other monasteries Ittingen is not as total investment planned building. The Charterhouse, as it presents itself today, is the result of permanent structural modifications and adaptations to the specific needs in the course of more than 900 years.

History

Prehistory

A first wooden castle of the lords of Ittingen could be around 800 at the western end of the " Chrüzbuck ", a wooded drumlin beneath the road to Uesslingen emerged. An indication of this is the corridor designation Burgzelg below the hill.

Monastery operation

From the 8th until the 12th century the castle was the seat of the Lords of Ittingen Ittingen, a gentry family and Ministeriale of Guelph. In 1079 the castle was destroyed by the troops Hittingin of the abbot of St. Gall during the Investiture Controversy between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII and later rebuilt, probably due to an atonement contract. The core of the new castle is suspected at the site of the present south wing of the monastery complex. For 70 years, the castle was the seat of the Stewards of Ittingen.

1150 founded the last three representatives of the family in their castle a Chorherrenstift according to the rules of the Augustinians, in which they themselves entered. At the founding of the Bishop of Constance and the Guelphs were involved, as Vogt officiated the Count of Kyburg. 1152 was the pen from the feudal lord, Duke Welf VI. equipped with additional privileges. Patron saint was Lawrence of Rome, whose character, the martyr - rust, still appears in the coat of arms of the Charterhouse.

The small pin owed ​​his rise to the nearby town of Frauenfeld, which became the Habsburg administrative center at that time. The pen never achieved great importance; 1289 was the Convention only of the Provost, the former provost, five canons and two brothers.

1420 decreed Ittingen neither a prior nor a priest. Emperor Frederick III. , Who in 1458 Frauenfeld had directly subordinate caused an improvement of the financial situation and prepared the surrender of the monastery of the Carthusian prior, the Order was in its greatest expansion. 1461 the transfer was completed. The Carthusians bought the impoverished Ittingen and rebuilt it with great effort. Only in 1471 the monastery was formally incorporated into the Order Association of the Carthusians. According to your rules, the population was excluded from the church; particularly women remained closed the church. So it was already in the same year, " Women's Strike ": The Warther women forced their way into the church and forced with a sit-down strike its own chapel in Warth.

On 18 July 1524 Charterhouse was invaded in Ittinger storm, plundered and burned for two days. The exiled monks returned only slowly; until 1553 the facilities were rebuilt during the Counter Reformation.

Sub-Prior, Bruno Müller and the procurator, Josephus exchange the monastery acquired by an administrative reform a time of economic prosperity, the basis of which was the wine cultivation and trafficking. In a good year were generated against 20,000 guilders. For comparison: in 1762 the cost of a house with yard, barn and garden 260 guilders. The prosperity was reflected in comprehensive construction and refurbishment of the church. At the same time prior Bruno Müller began for the resulting in Ittingen Klosterchronistik and hagiography, which was reflected inter alia in its efforts to the 1648 paper published Helvetia Sancta by Heinrich Murer.

1798, after the decline of the Old Confederation, the authorities of the Helvetic Republic banned the reception of novices. The monastery property was confiscated by the newly created Canton of Thurgau, out of the economic operation of government managers and had to be paid high taxes. 1848, the monastery was finally lifted; the monks had to leave Ittingen after about seven centuries. The medieval library was acquired by the Library Canton Thurgau.

Private property

First, the Canton ran the farm estate, in 1856 he sold it to two Appenzeller. Not least because of the decline in income from the wine sold in the fall of 1867 the new owners to operate for 308,000 francs to the St. Galler banker and businessman Edmund Fehr. He acquired all the buildings of the former convent with a total of 100 hectares of forest, vineyards and arable fields for his 21- year-old son Victor Fehr. Whose family led the Charterhouse over several generations as model farm until 1977. The monastery remained essentially. The landed gentry family lived in the rooms on the first floor of the south wing of the old monastery, which had previously served the Prior.

On 4 September 1912, the German Emperor Wilhelm II Victor Fehr attended Charterhouse during the Imperial maneuvers from 4 to 8 September 1912. For the imperial convenience of hosts built the first water toilet flushing device with a Charterhouse, which in Switzerland at the time was still a rarity.

Victor Fehr's successor as lord of the manor was his son Cavalry Lieutenant Colonel Edmund (1883-1965), ushered his heirs after his death, the sale of the goods.

Today

In 1977, the Charterhouse was sold to the newly established Foundation Charterhouse and 1978-1983 comprehensively restored for 49 million francs; the amount was collected by the Canton of Thurgau, companies and private individuals.

Responsible were four architectural firms: Scherrer and Hartung from Schaffhausen to the monastery renovation, Antonio and Huber for the art museum, Kräher and Jenny for agricultural buildings and Rudolf Guyer and Esther for the building of the external exam. 2008 and 2009, parts of the plant were again renovated and expanded.

The Foundation operates in Ittingen today a cultural and educational center and a home for disabled children for around 30 men and women who are employed in the premises of the facility. The buildings house the Protestant meeting and education center tecum, the Kunstmuseum Thurgau and the Ittinger monastery museum. Its business includes two hotels with 68 rooms and seminar rooms, a multifunctional hall " Remise " and the restaurant Zur Mühle.

The farm estate is one of the largest farms in the canton of Thurgau. In addition to traditional agriculture wine is grown. Two hop gardens provide the raw material for their own beer, which is brewed in Calanda in Chur. Add the cheese, the milk is processed from its own stables at different cheeses. The products can be purchased in the monastery shop.

Painted ceiling in a room in the monastery museum

Staircase in the Lower guesthouse

Building

The oldest part of the plant is the remainder of a rectangular building with thick walls in the south wing of the monastery; it is conceivable that it is a part of a defensive tower from the period before 1150.

As the monastery in the 12th and 13th century looked like, is not known. From the period of reconstruction in the 14th century a lot of buildings has been preserved, including the longitudinal walls of the church with its pointed arch windows. The small cloister was already at that time.

After the takeover of the pen by the Carthusian Order of the large cloister around which the house of the monks are created with private garden was created. After the storm Ittinger especially the church was extensively renovated. From this period dates the 1550 dated main portal. Stepped gables and battlements shaped the appearance.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the south wing was extended to the west, were housed in the ground floor of the rooms of the Vice Dean, upstairs that of the Priors. Thus, the spaces of these dignitaries was originally brought out clearly from the building complex. After 1620 the great cloister and some cells cottages were built.

In 1700, the Baroque style of the church began. The choir stalls of Thurgauers Chrisostomus Fröhli (1652-1724) was completed in 1701 and built the new choir with large windows. Then, the East Wing were built with vestries, hall and library at the small cloister.

In the 1720s, the west side was for a new building, the appearance of a castle facade with two projections. Under the floor of the large wine cellar was built, on the ground floor there were rooms for the lay brothers and the first floor guest rooms have been furnished. Thirty years later the building had to be extensively renovated since static problems were encountered. At the same time the axis of the church was again made ​​visible by a portal was reused from the lobby.

Sub-Prior Anthony of Seilern the Gothic church from 1763 to 1797 was rebuilt in the Rococo style and got her to this day largely preserved appearance. The state administration under left constructional changes to the actual monastery buildings, their activity was limited to demolition, conversion and new construction of farm buildings.

The private owner Victor Fehr, who lived in the Charterhouse from 1867 to 1938, left the seven monks' cells with the north wing of the cloister and the perimeter of the garden tear. From the monastery kitchen was a separate room in Neo-Renaissance style. The most notable change came in 1880 in front of the south wing of the loggia with terrace and covered patio.

In 1977, the Foundation took over the facility, numerous restoration works had become urgent. The broken monastic cells on the north side were rebuilt and served henceforth as spaces for the museum, which was established in the historic rooms. Beginning of the 1980s, the architect Rudolf Guyer and Esther built the Upper guesthouse. The renovated plant was reopened in 1983.

From the following conversions, the new building of the restaurant " Zur Mühle " with the integrated mill wheel from the old farm estate and the elaborate redesign of the Upper guest house in the years 2008/2009 were the most striking. Responsible were the architects Regula Harder and Jürg Spreyermann who had in 2004 already rebuilt the Lower guesthouse. The dominant colors of turquoise and pink there were taken from a ceiling on the first floor of the museum and the church.

Pictures

Restaurant « mill »

Little Cloister

View from the loggia

Rebhaus and fish pond