Bad Staffelstein - Banz Monastery

The former Benedictine monastery of Banz rises high above the Main River valley and offers extensive views of the Franconia. The landscape around Banz is known as "God's garden on the upper reaches of the Main".

As early as the 9th century, the Banzer Berg, the top of the area known as the Banzgau, an imaginary elongated triangle between the Itz and the Main, was fortified with a circular wall.

After the Banzgau became the property of Schweinfurt (the first evidence of this dates from 941), one of the Schweinfurt rulers built a castle on the site of the present-day monastery.

When Otto of Swabia finally died in 1057 as the last male representative of this dynasty, Banzgau was inherited by one of his five daughters, Albarada. She married Count Hermann Habsberg-Kastl. As their sons Konrad, Otto and Heinrich soon died and the daughter unhappily married, Albarada and her husband decided to convert the castle into a Benedictine monastery.

The monastery was probably founded in 1071 and was occupied by monks from the Fulda Abbey.

The monastery and its grounds became part of the princely bishopric of Bamberg, not Würzburg, which owned the surrounding territory. For this reason, the Archbishop of Bamberg also appointed the abbots of the monastery until 1114, when the office was filled by the usual election of monks.

Over the following years the monastery fell into disrepair. At the beginning of the 12th century, Otto of Bamberg was appointed abbot of the monastery of Banz. Under his leadership, the monastic community developed. The monastery buildings were restored and the monastery church was consecrated on 21 September 1114. In 1121 he brought new monks to Banz from the Bamberg monastery of Prüfening near Regensburg. He also received benefits from the administrative hofmister.

In the 12th century, the Bishopric of Bamberg took the Abbey of Banz under its administration from the Counts of Abenberg.

From the 14th century at the latest, Banz was mainly used to provide for the descendants of the East Franconian nobility. To ensure the nobility's standard of living, the monastery was limited to a maximum of twenty monks in 1379. The life of the conventuals became increasingly distant from the order of St. Benedict and more and more like that of canons.

An attempted reform in 1492 to restore Benedictine observances, i.e. a life of poverty, obedience and localism, was not met with understanding. In the 15th century there were also repeated disputes between six to eight monks and the abbot over the use of the monastery property. These spread beyond Banzgau into Saxony. The bishops of Bamberg sought to strengthen their influence over the monastery through their role as arbitrators.

After a fire in 1505 and the destruction in the Peasants' War in 1525, the monastery was rebuilt initially with only three monks under the leadership of Abbot Alexander von Rotenhan (1529-1554). Notable buildings included the church, the cellars and the school building. From 1550 the monastery also had a cloister and again a "Schlaffhauß". Abbot Alexander von Rotenhan not only wanted to rebuild the buildings, but also to enlarge the monastery. However, he did not succeed. Only pupils of noble birth were allowed to enter the monastery, but most of them did not enter the monastery after completing their education. As a result, in the last years of Abbot Alexander von Rotenhan's life only one monk remained in the monastery. For this reason, Abbot Alexander obtained permission to admit non-nobles to the monastery in 1550. However, this permission was not used.

After the death of Abbot Alexander von Rotenhan in 1565-1568, a dispute escalated between the Bishop of Würzburg, the Bishop of Bamberg and the Duke of Saxony over the monastery, which was occupied by the army several times. The dispute was won by the Duke of Würzburg.

In 1568, Abbot Georg von Henneberg and the entire monastery converted to the Protestant faith and the monks left the monastery. A large part of the Banz area joined Luther's teachings.

Only at the end of the 16th century did it become Catholic again. After Banz had been abandoned for seven years, the abbot Johann Burkhard (1575-1598) restored the monastery on the authority of the bishop of Würzburg, to which only non-nobles were admitted.

Before the Thirty Years' War, the monastery complex was supplemented with other buildings, such as a chapel. At the beginning of the war, the monastery remained virtually intact.

The sacking of the monastery and its surroundings during the Thirty Years' War during King Gustav Adolf's campaign in 1632 dealt a severe blow to the development of the monastery. The monks fled to areas less affected by the war, and the monk Georg Heusler returned in 1635. He found the monastery ransacked and the surrounding area depopulated. The new abbot Michael Stürzel was able to expand the monastery again and repair the damage to the buildings and the church. Subsequent abbots continued to expand the monastery.

It was not until the reign of Abbot Otto de la Bourde (1664-1677), who bestowed wealth on the monastery, that the monastery flourished. In 1688 Banz passed definitively to the diocese of Bamberg. Under Eucharia Weinert (1677-1701), who was also abbot of the monastery of St. Stephen in Würzburg, the monastery began to be rebuilt in Baroque style in 1698. It took until 1775 to complete in several building stages.

Leonhard Dientzenhofer was commissioned to design the restoration of the monastery in 1695.

In 1698-1704, an elongated sandstone abbey building with a hipped roof was built according to his plans. Then in 1704-1705 a two-storey refectory building made of sandstone blocks with a gabled roof.

In 1706 a two-storey convent building of sandstone blocks with a gabled roof was built. In 1735 it was converted into a library.

Leonhard Dientzenhofer died prematurely in 1707. His work at the Banz monastery was taken over by his younger brother Johann Dientznehofer.

The monastery church of St. Peter and Dionysius was built according to his design in 1710-1738. Around 1715 the sacristy building was built according to Johann Dientzenhofer's plans.

In 1716, a distinctive terrace in front of the main monastery building was built according to Johann Dientzenhofer's plans.

In 1717-1724 the bishopric building was built as a two-storey building made of sandstone with a gable roof.

Johann Dientzenhofer died in 1726. The claims for his services at the Banz monastery were not recovered by his heirs until 1746.

The convent building, a three-storey building made of sandstone blocks with a gable roof sloping to the east, was built between 1731 and 1732 according to the original plans of Johann Dientzenhofer. The plans were partially modified by Balthasar Neumann (third floor).

The reconstruction of the courtyard, consisting of the gatehouse, the inn building, the collection building, the domestics' building and the concierges' building, was carried out in 1750-1772 according to the plans of Johann Thomas Nißler using the plans of Balthasar Neumann.

In 1772-1775, a farmyard with a staircase and ramp, a two-armed outdoor staircase and a two-armed ramp were completed by the builder Sebastian Weber.

Further alterations were carried out in the 19th century.

On 18 November 1802, the princely bishoprics of Bamberg and Würzburg were abolished. The territory now belonged to the Bavarian dominion. In 1803 the administration of the monastery was taken over by the Bavarian Electorate. Shortly afterwards, Elector Maximilian Joseph sent an administrator to administer Banz from then on.

On 24 October 1803 the monastery was finally dissolved. The land of the monastery was transferred to Bavaria. Other valuables were also distributed. For example, the library was taken to Bamberg. Some of the buildings were sold and demolished and a district court, a rent office and a prison were established. The monastery church became a parish church.

The monastery books were transferred to the state library in Bamberg, the coin collection to Munich. Today, the natural history cabinet together with the collections of Langheim Abbey form the basis of the collections of the Bamberg Natural History Museum and the Bamberg History Museum.

Only eight Conventuals passed into pastoral care, some teaching at universities. Other monks received pensions. Secularization was officially considered complete on 24 October 1803, but the last Banz monk did not die until 1853.

In 1814, the former monastery complex was bought by Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria from the Wittelsbach family of Zweibrücken. Banz Castle" now served as a summer residence where Duke Wilhelm hosted, among others, the King of Bavaria and the Russian Tsar. The living quarters were renovated and the imperial portraits in the imperial hall were replaced by paintings of the Wittelsbachs. The monastery crypt served as the burial place of the ducal family until 1883.

After Wilhelm's death, however, the ducal family distanced themselves from Banz, which resulted in a request to sell the castle. However, this was unsuccessful. After some efforts, the ducal family at least managed to rent the castle. 8.

In 1920, Ludwig Wilhelm Herzog in Bavaria leased Banz Castle to a community of 52 Trappists whose monastery Ölenberg in Alsace had been destroyed during the World War. The contract was actually concluded for 50 years. In 1922 Banz became an independent priory, but the Trappists soon moved to Engelszell in Austria. Negotiations with the Benedictine Abbey of Scheyern for the use of the abandoned monastery remained fruitless.

In 1933 Banz was sold to the "Community of Holy Angels". The founder of this order, Franz Xaver Geyer, founded the "German Mission Abroad" in 1935 with a seminary in Banz. In the following years, however, monastic life was shaped primarily by the restrictions imposed by the National Socialist regime, the establishment of a military hospital and the storage of museum objects from Nuremberg, Berlin, Coburg and Prague.

In 1935 the Nazi regime dissolved the seminary. To avoid expropriation, the community converted the monastery into a reserve hospital, which operated until 1945. However, the seminary was not reopened after the end of the war. In 1945 the monastery was closed down.

In the period after World War II, the spiritual community dwindled until 1978, when the monastery grounds, with the exception of the church and the gardener's house, were sold to the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The Foundation has thoroughly renovated the grounds and has since used the site as a conference centre for political education.

The site has been part of the town of Bad Staffelstein since 1978.

The monastic church is designed as a vaulted wall-pillared church with an offset choir and a double tower front, the choir isolated by a height difference and a significant offset from the centralising plan of the nave, which encircles the overall oval and is intersected by transverse oval plan elements.

The architecture and furnishings of the monastery church were created in just eight years of construction, making Banz an independent Baroque masterpiece. The monastery church was decorated by the Bamberg court plasterer Johann Jakob Vogel and the Tyrolean fresco painter Melchior Steidl.

Other masterpieces in the church are the Pieta (c. 1740) and the figure of the Virgin Mary by the Crown sculptor Pankrác Fried (c. 1770/1775) and the choir stalls by the court cabinetmaker Johann Georg Neßtfell with twenty inlaid paintings from the life of St. Benedict (1749).

The Baroque organ from the workshop of the Würzburg master Johann Philipp Seuffert (1737) has a facade and a free-standing console. During the restoration of the organ in 1985, a Seuffert organ from 1744/48 was purchased from the Benedictine Abbey Grafschaft near Meschede and installed in the old façade.

The site is owned by the Hans Seidel Foundation, which is a party-affiliated foundation of the CSU. The foundation has carried out extensive renovations to the monastery. As a result, the facility now has 165 beds, 11 seminar rooms, a radio, television and retort studio, and recreational facilities such as a swimming pool. The Foundation uses these facilities as a conference, training and meeting centre.