Payerne Priory
The Abbey is a former Cluniac monastery Payerne Payerne, Vaud Canton, Switzerland.
- 2.1 Architectural History
- 2.2 style
- 2.3 Development after the Reformation
History
Foundation
The monastery Payerne, located in the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy, was probably founded around 962 by Empress Adelheid as Memoriastätte ( Memorial beings ) on the grave lay her mother Queen Berta of Burgundy, the extent co-initiated the founding of a monastery, as that they are the church of Payerne for its grave lay in goods let equip and donations. It has 962 affiliated one of the first daughter monasteries of the reform of Cluny Abbey. It was richly endowed by the kings of Burgundy and the German emperors, and had extensive property along the Jura foothills, in the Lake Geneva area, in Zealand, and also in Alsace. 1033 Conrad II was crowned in Payerne King of Burgundy.
Decline
In the 13th century Payerne came under the influence of the Dukes of Savoy. In the 14th century, the gradual decline of the priory, which could not be stopped, as the antipope Felix V. Payerne in 1444 rose to the abbey began. During the Burgundian Wars Payerne was allied with the Bernese and therefore remained untouched by the Confederates.
Bernese rule
With the conquest of Vaud in 1536 Payerne came under Bernese rule, and during the Reformation, which was introduced by the Bern canton of Vaud, in 1536 the monks had to leave the monastery. Parts of the convent buildings were demolished or converted.
The Abbey Church
Architectural History
The former abbey church Notre -Dame is a typical example of Cluniac architecture and one of the most important churches of the Roman period in Switzerland. The present building was begun at the instigation of Abbot Odilo of Cluny in the 11th century on the site of the former church from the 10th century, following the second abbey church of Cluny. Parts of the previous building, including the archaic capitals were involved in the new church.
Architecture
The pillar basilica shows a three naves with seven yokes, a transept crossing tower and a semicircular apse. Gives a special impression of the changing color of the stone blocks used on the pillars and vaulting ribs. In the west the nave concludes in a stronghold like masonry, which ( with frescoes of the Last Judgment from the 13th century) and the upper floor contains the lobby of the Chapel of St Michael. Its high hip roof was built in the 15th century.
In the east, a stepped choir is with four side choirs. The Resurrection chapel on the first northern chancel is decorated with wall paintings from the 13th century (the Annunciation, the Nativity, Prayer on the Mount of Olives and the Assumption ). The Graillykapelle in the second southern chancel let the Vicar General Jean de Grailly 1454 rebuilt in the Gothic style. The central tower was rebuilt after a fire in the 16th century in Gothic style forms.
The basilica is 67 m long. The height of the nave is 14 to 15.2 m, the height of the choir 16.8 m and the height to the tower top is 63.4 m.
Development after the Reformation
After the Reformation, the abbey church was desecrated and served in the 17th century as a bell foundry in the 18th century, after intermediate floors had been drafted, as a granary, and later as a prison and barracks. Since 1926, we undertook a careful restoration, which is why the Church again today is a monument in Europe.
Since 1999, stands in the abbey church a specially designed room for the organ by Jürgen Ahrend, which is built according to Italian models in a copy of the case by Lorenzo da Prato to San Petronio, Bologna. Previously, from 1981 to 1996, there was one here from Taizé, transferred to instruments of the same organ builder, this is now in the Cathedral of Lyon.
In the remaining Romanesque buildings of the abbey is located since 1869 a museum. Of the former convent buildings south of the abbey church only the beginning of the 16th century chapter house is newly built obtain.