"Trunseo" Abbey Traunkirchen
An old nunnery with a long history
In the distance, a Christian and pagan army are meeting. You almost think you can hear the sounds of battle. The Christian army gains victory over the infidels, the column with the idol is overthrown. In memory of the glorious victory over the pagans, Count Ottokar IV of Traungau and Leopold V of the Babenbergs kneel before the Mother of God and present her with a model of a church. It is none other than the abbey of “Trunseo”, which is said to have been built as early as 632 AD.
However, this account does not stand up to closer scrutiny. It may have originated from a mixture of the memory of Trunseo Abbey with the founding of Traunkirchen Nunnery. However, the painting is nevertheless very valuable as a historical source. The abbess, Barbara Kirchberger, on the left in the picture, commissions the foundation painting on the occasion of the 900th anniversary celebration. The view with Traunkirchen Nunnery, Johannesberg Church and St. Nicholas Chapel in the background shows their condition in around 1532 and gives us a good idea of the original appearance of the church and the late medieval nunnery.
It is not until 1186 that the name "Trunkirchen" is first mentioned in the Georgenberg Handfeste, the inheritance contract between Ottokar IV, from the Traungau dynasty, and Leopold V of the Babenbergs. A famous Benedictine nunnery, it ranks among the foremost ducal monasteries. In the beginning, the nunnery's estate includes around 15 farms. Subsequently, further donations and benefices were added, which secure its economic foundation.
Protestantism spreads in centres of salt production and transport. The Benedictine nuns of Traunkirchen Monastery also turn to Protestantism. In 1573 monastic life comes to an end. A visitation judges the last abbess to be "simple-minded, childish and incapable of business and government". Under the Protestant administration, the entire Salzkammergut professes to be Protestant until the Counter-Reformation finally begins under Emperor Rudolf II.
In the course of re-Catholicisation, the Jesuits from Passau take over the nunnery at the beginning of the 17th century. After a second fire - the first was in the 14th century - the Baroque church known today is built around 1632. Late Baroque works of art characterise the church interior. These include the Altar of St. John of Nepomuk, the Altar of St. Ignatius and the main work: the fisherman's pulpit. In the middle of the 18th century, the high altar and painting of St. Francis Xavier in front of the Madonna and the Child Jesus by Johann Georg-Schmidt follow. In 1773, when the Counter-Reformation comes to an end, Joseph II dissolves the Jesuit monastery, and the monastery church has been a parish church ever since.
© beyondarts-altmünster-weg-artmünster-app-1000
