Töss Monastery

The monastery Töss was a Dominican convent from the 13th century in the district of Winterthur Töss. It was canceled at the beginning of the 19th century. In its place now stands the Maschinenfabrik Rieter.

History

Beginning

In the field "In the Wyden " were already in the 13th century, a sister's house and a mill. The monastery Töss was founded on December 19, 1233 with the approval of the Bishop of Constance by the Count Hartmann IV and V of Kyburg. 1234 first was a house for the sisters built a chapel in 1240. Both buildings were consecrated in 1240 by Bishop Henry.

The church, a nave long building with a length of 44.5 meters, was consecrated in 1315. The large pointed arch windows on the east wall was probably bricked 1704. The south longitudinal side was pierced by two arched windows, the north side of eight. Lay on the west side, probably only since 1704, a small chapel entrance, about three windows with high-Gothic tracery. About the interior of the church is not known; probably it was spanned by a flat wooden ceiling.

A mill at the former bridge over the River Toess and a farm formed the first basis of its economic existence. In addition, the monastery from all taxes and duties was liberated. The nuns were given the right to choose their prioress herself free.

The vow had to take when entering the sisters differed only slightly from that of the monastery Oetenbach in Zurich; for both the Rule of St. Augustine were decisive.

The monastery was under after 1235 on the orders of Pope Gregory IX. the supervision of the Zurich Dominicans. They preached on high holidays and took his confession. 1268 visited the Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus paid a visit to the monastery and consecrated the altars of the Church. Also Meister Eckhart probably visited the monastery in 1324. His pupil Heinrich Suso often traveled to Töss.

Monastic life and mysticism

An insight into the life of nuns in monasteries and Oetenbach Töss is a description of Walter Muschg:

"The days were given by the seven canonical Tagzeiten, the Hours, one invariably the same shape. They consisted of common prayers with readings and singing in the church choir. The intermediate times were filled by domestic work in the factory house, especially by spiders and just another way of worship. The higher schooled was spent on copying books and sheet music for the choir. During meals, the silence ran as the hours in the factory house and were so sparse that it sometimes disgusted novices before the meal, was read by the reading champion. Severe fasting rules raised from time to time, this refreshing almost entirely on. At the tables sat lay sisters and children in addition to young and old stone nuns. Among women of Tösser sister book are those that entered the monastery with three, four or six years. We learn there also, the eagerness with which in the 13th century, the cruel regulations were surpassed. During the day, it is said, was a dead silence, no drive special materials, all sat in the factory house as devoutly as in the show. A peculiarity of the preacher monasteries was mainly still Matins, the nocturnal chorus before dawn, the punctual observance of the enthusiasts was matter of the heart. Some of them you can see the hours until the primary, the next Hore, by waking in the dark choir of the monastery church. This is the time of their most secret experiences of ecstatic exercises, temptations and visions ". "

This atmosphere great privations promoted the climate mystical thought good; by long -lasting is sinking into the world of faith, asceticism and bodily mortifications an association was sought with Christ. The monastery Töss monastery in the 14th century to the strongholds of mysticism and the nuns of Oetenbach and Töss are considered masters of these exercises, with which the soul should be led to God.

From this life reported the resulting 1340 Tösser sister book in 34 biographies provides a comprehensive insight into the world of Tösser woman mysticism. Posted got it, along with some unnamed sisters, the nun Elsbeth Stagel who was born shortly after 1300 in Zurich as the daughter of an alderman from Zurich, had already come as a child to Töss. In a mixture of Kurzviten and detailed illustrations, the book draws on different source material, possibly also on some originally independent Gnadenviten, such as the Vita of Mechthild of Stans. The conclusion of the book is the added later Vita of the Hungarian king's daughter Elizabeth of Hungary. Overall, the work provides, like all sister books, less a realistic picture of everyday life as it is a training in religious issues and in the ideals of monastic spirituality. In this sense, the reception was in the 15th century, when the monastery reformer Johannes Meyer added a preface to use the book for the objectives of the monastic reform.

Heyday

After the death of the founder of the monastery, who had died in 1264 without direct heirs, his estate came to Rudolf von Habsburg. 1424 was the first county mortgage example, 1452 is definitely the city of Zurich.

The monastery enjoyed, especially among members of the landed gentry and the urban council and patrician families great popularity. The recording presupposed a particular asset; thus the monastery passed through donations and purchases to considerable landed property. By 1300, it was the richest monastery in the region. The monastery possessed a large part of the village Töss, the village Dättlikon, the mills along the Töss and large estates in Neunforn in Rorbas, book and Berg am Irchel. The estate in the city of Zurich was administered by a private bailiff. The monastery were under numerous serfs; their first official confirmation from the year 1274th

In its heyday in the late 13th and in the 14th century over a hundred nuns living in the monastery. The attractiveness of the monastery was so great that the approval of the nuns was limited at times in spite of the strict regulations. The binding of the monastery Töss to the nobility was reinforced in the 14th century by Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who lived in Töss from 1309 until her death in 1336. In her honor, took the monastery of the Hungarian coat of arms on the double cross, which is still part of the municipality coat of arms of Töss.

As of 1430, the monastery possessed a castle right in the city of Winterthur, this was renewed in 1488. 1514 but no longer was the castle law without a specific occasion or disposal. Causes could be disputes over the rights to the Eulach, customs freedoms granted or the possession of rights and Lindberg in the Neuwiesen.

Between 1469 and 1491 the good economic conditions allowed the nuns to build a new two-story enclosure building and to envisage the new cloister among others, Hans Haggenberg. The rear walls of the cloister masses around 40 meters, the inner walls 30 meters. Gerold Meyer von Knonau wrote in 1844 in his manual "The canton of Zurich »: The cloister with 61 pointed arch with 80 Frescogemälden [ ... ] adorned, from which in 1837 still 35 were well preserved. As founder of the cloister is considered the nun Clara Egghart, who comes from a patrician family of Constance and the monastery Töss nebendem also the purchase of lands allowed.

At 160 meters panel stories from the Old and New Testaments were mapped. In the base zone crest and name of nuns and their relatives were detained. The murals were destroyed in the 19th century together with the building, but thanks tracings of Paul Julius Arter (1797 - 1839), August Corrodi and Johann Conrad Werdmüller handed.

• Pictures of Johann Conrad Werdmüller from the cloister

The monastery Töss had a rich library of sacred works in Latin and German. Particularly extensive was the collection of writings of the mystic Meister Eckhart, John Tauler and Henry Suso. In addition to copies of loaned works created their own works or for other monasteries and private writings were copied. Some thirty nuns were active as writers. The book collection of the monastery Töss contained at the end of the 15th century about 600 works, of which about half was originated in the monastery. She was considered the largest collection of late medieval manuscripts.

Decline

At the beginning of the monastic rules were designed in Töss so that the social differences in the origin of the women were compensated. During the 15th century, with increasing wealth, the rules were relaxed. 1514 allowed a bull wearing more comfortable clothes. Individual nuns managed her own private fortune, lived in the monastery as in a boarding house and talked domestic servants. Some recovered with relatives or in a " Curative " in Baden from humdrum everyday monastery and were apparently also an addition to the cure by " earthly pleasures " not averse. Nuns left the monastery without permission and the bath room was also used by outsiders. In addition, the morning mass should no longer be sung, but only read. As in the monastery Oetenbach in Zurich, there was a gradual decay of morals in Töss monastery; the exam rules were only observed limited and piety was lost. But until the Reformation remained Töss a respected and wealthy monastery.

Resolution

Even before the Reformation, the monastery did not make any major purchases more. Under the influence of new ideas left first nuns of the monastery and demanded back the introduced good.

After the Reformation, during Holy Week in 1525, the Council of Zurich managed to Zwingli's instigation from the show and replaced it with the Lord's Supper. In June of the same year applied peasants gathered outside the gates of the monastery. They made numerous claims to the Zurich authorities and threatened to destroy the monastery. Although a looting was avoided, but Zurich decided to lift the monastery. Back in June, an official appointed by the Council distant overseer pictures and statues of saints. On December 9, 1525 after almost 300 years of existence, the monastery became the property of the state and became an office. His property was confiscated by the Zurich government, for managing a bailiff was used. In the following years, the buildings were used as office buildings.

Some nuns came to the Reformed faith on, some were married or were taken in by relatives. Other received from the government a kind of pension awarded. However, the community of sisters remained, because even in 1527 urkundeten sisters of the monastery Töss. 1532 are mentioned more than thirty former nuns and lay sisters against twenty. The last nun of the convent Töss, Catherine of Ulm, died 1572. The church served as a parish church from then on.

After the French Revolution in 1800 the monastery buildings were empty. 1833, 600 years after its founding, the Canton of Zurich picked up all the offices and the monastery was auctioned. The entrepreneur Johann Jakob Rieter (1762-1826) bought the plant for 103,000 francs and built on the site of his engineering works, most of the buildings were demolished. 1834 Rieter bought the church to do so. She remained standing until 1916 and was used as a factory because of their height. Between highway and factory is a former mill building has received, which is now used as a transit center for asylum seekers. In addition, recalls in Töss only the. At the Maschinenfabrik along road leading monastery of the former monastery Töss