Bamberg - Monastery Michelsberg

On a dominant height above the cathedral city of Bamberg, the Abbey of St. Michael has been located since 1015. After the establishment of the diocese of Bamberg by Emperor Henry II, the first Bishop of Bamberg, Eberhard, founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Michael as an episcopal monastery in 1015. Accordingly, the respective abbot was exclusively subordinate to the Bishop of Bamberg. The monks for Michelsberg initially came from the abbeys of Amorbach and Fulda.

The monastery first flourished under Bishop Otto of Bamberg in the 12th century, especially with the canonization of the monastery's patron, Bishop Otto, who was buried in the monastery church, in 1189 and the papal protection of the abbey. From 1251 onwards, Michelsberg Abbey became increasingly independent from the Bishopric of Bamberg. The granting of a pontifical to the abbots occurred before 1185.

With the granting of the pontifical to the abbots before 1185, the canonization of the patron bishop Otto buried in the monastery in 1189 and the papal protection of the abbey from 1251, Michelsberg gained increasing independence from the episcopate of Bamberg. Until the 18th century, the abbey and the diocese repeatedly jostled for their privileges.

The most important economic base of the monastery lay in its large property in 441 places in the diocese.

In the summer of 1435, the nobly proud monastery was sacked and plundered by the townspeople of Bamberg. Only a generation later did life in the monastery return to normal. Michelsberg suffered again during the Peasants' War in 1525, the war of the Frankish margraves and the prolonged occupation by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War.

The monastery church was partially destroyed by fire in 1610. During the reconstruction of the roof, a post-Gothic vaulted ceiling with the famous Garden of Heaven was created around 1610 - 1614. There are 578 plants painted with botanical precision like a monumental book of herbs.

The medieval monastery, which can still be seen in the panels relating to Otto's legend painted in 1628, was completely altered in the Baroque period.

In 1693, Lothar Franz von Schönborn was elected Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, followed in 1695 by the Archbishop of Mainz, and thus Arch-Chancellor and first Prince of the Empire. One of the aims of Prince-Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn was the Baroque reconstruction of Bamberg itself, as well as the Baroque reconstruction of a number of castles, castles, monasteries and churches under the influence of the Bamberg Chapter. Lothar Franz von Schönborn names Leonhard Dientzenhofer as the court architect in Bamberg.

Among other things, Leonhard is commissioned with three significant building tasks in Bamberg - the conversion of the Benedictine monastery on the Michelsberg into a uniformly regulated Baroque building, the construction of the bishop's New Residence on Dome Square and the Baroque reconstruction of the Carmelite church and the monastery of St. Theodore.

In 1696 Leonhard Dientzenhofer concluded a contract with Abbot Christoph Erst von Guttenberg for the rebuilding of the Benedictine monastery and church on Michelsberg. Thus began a new period of prosperity for the abbey.

After 1697, the basilica, which is still Romanesque in its core, was given a baroque west façade by Leonhard Dientzenhofer. In 1698, Johann Dientzenhofer was already working here as master. Further reconstruction in the style of the time was carried out in 1707-1713 by the bishop's court architect Johann Dientzenhofer, in particular with the construction of a staircase terrace and a high choir.

The monastery buildings, a four-winged complex forming an almost square cloister, and the outbuildings were successively built by Leonhard Dientzenhofer in 1696-1702. In 1707-1713, according to the plans of Johann Dientzenhofer, the pre-monastery, courtyard and outbuildings were rebuilt, the so-called New Abbey was built, and in 1710 Johann Dientzenhofer designed and built the Merkur Fountain. In 1726-1727 a pavilion was built on the west side.

The remaining buildings of the abbey, i.e. the monastery's farmyard with the gate chapel of St. Oswald, were built 1739-1744 according to plans by Justus Heinrich Dientzenhofer with repairs by Bathasar Neumann in 1742.

The convent gardens, upper monastery gardens, and terraces were landscaped or founded in 1711-1731.

The grounds of the monastery with the basilica are built on top of the Michelsberg hill. Baroque houses and old trees line the climb up the Michelsberg. At the foot of the hill, the gateway to the former Benedictine monastery opens. This is made up of sandstone block buildings including the church, monastery buildings, farmyard and gardens.

The monastic church is designed as a three-aisled basilica on a cruciform plan with a gabled roof and monopitched roofs over the side aisles, with a double-towered façade to the west with pointed helmets and a façade in early Baroque forms above a staircase with an elaborate High Baroque terrace. There is a transept on the east side, preceded on the south by a former septum under a hipped mansard.

After the Baroque reconstruction a generation later, Georg Adam Reuß created a playful angel pulpit in Rococo style for the basilica. The cabinet painter Servatius Brickard was employed in the monastery. He created his main work, the choir stalls with rich inlay, around 1730. The tomb of God in the side chapel, on the other hand, points to early classicism. The sequence of ten tombs of the prince-bishops of Bamberg was not transferred to St Michael's until 1833 as part of the re-romanticisation of the cathedral.

In the basilica, beneath the raised choir on the west side of the crypt, stands the high tomb of Saint Otto (1060-1139), a work that was dedicated by Abbot Johann von Fuchs around 1440.

The memorial plaque on the back wall, made by a Würtzburg artist in 1288, is also of artistic significance. It depicts Otto, who was almost 80 years old at the time of his death, as a man in his prime whose charisma is evident.

In 1833, the tombstones of Bamberg bishops from the 16th to 18th centuries, which had been removed from St Peter and St George's Cathedral in Bamberg by order of King Louis I (1786-1868), were erected here.

Today, the former Michelsberg Convent is still home to the town's "Bürgerspital", a home for the elderly that was formed from the merger of the two hospitals of St. Katharina and St. Elisabeth in 1738.