Chronology of the history of the building

St. Rupert sup­pos­ed­ly con­se­crates the monastery church of St. George.

1077

Build­ing an organ.

1123/28 

The Augus­tin­ian canons, tem­porar­i­ly liv­ing in Wel­tenburg, ren­o­vate the monastery church.

1191

The church con­se­cra­tion: As from a 1783 floor plan of the church drawn by Fr. Edmund Schmid accord­ing to infor­ma­tion from peo­ple who have seen the old facil­i­ty (Bay­erische Staats­bib­lio­thek Munich Cgm 1885/49) and from a col­ored pen draw­ing (copy by Johann Michael Kürschn­er um 1780; Cgm 1885/48), which shows the monastery at the begin­ning of the 17th cen­tu­ry, this church, which essen­tial­ly exist­ed until 1716, was a sin­gle-nave, elon­gat­ed rec­tan­gu­lar build­ing, prob­a­bly flat-roofed, with a closed choir that was not drawn in. A rood screen with two side pas­sages and a music gallery sep­a­rat­ed the monks’ choir from the lay church. The side altars were ded­i­cat­ed to St. cross, St. Bene­dict and Scholas­ti­ca and ded­i­cat­ed to Our Lady. Sep­a­rat­ed from the church, the tow­er rose — as it still does today — north of it in the east wing of the con­vent building.

1447/49

Under Abbot Kon­rad V. Ren­o­va­tion of church and monastery buildings.

1570 

Pur­chase of a clock­work for the church tow­er in Neustadt/Danube; an unspec­i­fied painter from Neustadt paints three sundials.

1578 

Ren­o­va­tion of the dor­mi­to­ries; Leon­hard Peham from Ingol­stadt paints sev­en cells with red oil paint.

1597 

A new organ is com­mis­sioned from the famous protes­tant organ builder Cas­par Sturm, Regensburg.

1606/08 

Renew­al of the bell storey of the church tow­er, with a lantern with an onion dome being added as a new finish.

1633/34 
The church is robbed, with the loss of the bells; Monastery and farm build­ings were par­tial­ly demolished.

1638

A painter from Kel­heim paints the pan­els green in the small abbey.

1642 

Bell by foundry­man Georg Schelchshorn, Regensburg

1644 

The pot­ter from Kel­heim is respon­si­ble for the two audio­vi­su­al works of St. Jerome and Mag­dale­na paid.

1657 

New bell from the Regens­burg foundry­man Johann Schelchshorn, the son of Georg Schelchshorn (deliv­ered to Munich in 1804).

1700 

Repairs to monastery buildings.

1704 

The two low­er wings of the abbey towards the kitchen gar­den will be ren­o­vat­ed (new win­dows will be installed for the most part).

1709 

Jan­u­ary 21: Inspec­tion report of the Munich monastery dean Joh. Mart. Con­stan­ti to the impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion in Munich: He found “every­thing and every­thing so bad that it can be said with cer­tain­ty that it resem­bles the fact that the whole build­ing does not resem­ble any clois­ter mer, and wher­ev­er one turns his eyes, noth­ing but lack and ruin becomes vis­i­ble “. With such dilap­i­da­tion of the monastery build­ing, any repairs are useless.

March 8: Abbot Corbin­ian Win­hart sub­mits pro­pos­als for the plan­ning of the new build­ing of the monastery and church to the Abbot Pres­i­dent Quirin Mil­lon von Tegernsee, where­by he sug­gests obtain­ing a cost esti­mate from the Fran­cis­can broth­er Philipp Blank from Ingol­stadt, who had been work­ing in Geisen­feld Monastery and was cur­rent­ly in Straubing.

Begin­ning of May: Fr. Philipp Blank dis­cuss­es the project with Abbot Pres­i­dent Quirin: The new church is to be built rough­ly on the site of the old one; the actu­al monastery is to be attached to it as before in the north — grouped around the clois­ter. For rea­sons of econ­o­my, the well-pre­served church tow­er is to be retained. The pic­turesque vari­ety of diverse build­ings both in the res­i­den­tial and in the com­mer­cial part of the monastery is to give way to a uni­form, as sym­met­ri­cal­ly arranged block com­plex as pos­si­ble, the vis­i­ble side of which still faces the Danube. By relo­cat­ing the brew­ery, which pre­vi­ous­ly served as a cross­bar to lim­it the church fore­court, direct­ly to the slope of the Frauen­berg, the monastery court­yard is to be con­sid­er­ably expanded.

Octo­ber 30th: After repeat­ed reminders from Abbot Augusti­nus Mayr, Fr. Philipp Blank deliv­ers the floor plan, visor and esti­mate of costs (29036 fl 30 kr) for the new monastery building.

Decem­ber 3rd: Abbot Augusti­nus sends these doc­u­ments to the impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion in Munich with the renewed request for finan­cial sup­port as soon as possible.

19 Decem­ber: The Wel­tenburg abbot reports to Abbot Pres­i­dent Quirin that he has pre­sent­ed the floor plan of the new monastery in Munich to var­i­ous “big patrons” for assessment.

1710

24 April: The Kel­heim care­tak­er from Leo­precht­ing con­firms the irrepara­ble dilap­i­da­tion of the monastery in a state­ment on the cost esti­mate and advo­cates its new construction.

Octo­ber 20th: Abbot Augustin reports to the impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion that the Buch­hof has been repaired in order to have an alter­na­tive if the sta­bles and barns in Wel­tenburg are demol­ished when con­struc­tion of the monastery begins. In addi­tion, the con­struc­tion of a new rock cel­lar for beer stor­age has begun dur­ing the con­struc­tion work, the monastery’s brick and lime kilns have been expand­ed, the brick barn has been renewed, and 788 spruce trunks and 51,000 bricks have been made avail­able for the monastery building.

Novem­ber 14: The Impe­r­i­al Admin­is­tra­tion autho­rizes the con­struc­tion of the monastery to begin in 1711.

1711 

March 4: Abbot Augustin writes to the impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion that due to the last ice drift and the sub­se­quent flood­ing, there is an imme­di­ate dan­ger of the monastery walls collapsing.

April 16th: The impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion holds out the prospect of a build­ing sub­sidy through bar­rel pen­ny mon­ey, but Nieder­al­te­ich Abbey must first be set­tled. There­fore, due to a lack of funds, the con­struc­tion of the new Wel­tenburg monastery can­not yet begin.

1713

Feb­ru­ary 20: Accord­ing to the com­mis­sion report, the new­ly elect­ed Abbot Mau­rus Bächel ini­tial­ly intends to lead the build­ing “not at all accord­ing to the sent in visor [by Fr. Philipp Blank], which seems cheap­ly too cost­ly, but rather in a monas­tic and two-sto­ry [= two-storey] man­ner, the exist­ing strong ones Allow the tow­er to tear down kheinesweegs”. (But the for­mer was lat­er to be abandoned.)

1714

16 April: Lay­ing of the foun­da­tion stone for the new monastery build­ing by Abbot Bene­dict II Mey­d­ing von Schey­ern; Draft: Mrs. Philipp Blank, exe­cu­tion: mas­ter brick­lay­er Cas­par Öttl, Kel­heim, Palier Michael Wolf, Stad­tamhof, mas­ter car­pen­ter Johann Wen­zler, Stadtamhof.

Demo­li­tion of the Danube wing of the old monastery.

1715

Spring: Demo­li­tion of the east and west wings of the monastery square due to the acute dan­ger of col­lapse, although the front sec­tion of con­struc­tion is not yet complete.

1716

Com­ple­tion of the actu­al monastery in the shell; demo­li­tion of the old church.

29 June: Lay­ing of the foun­da­tion stone for the new church by the Freis­ing prince-bish­op Johann Franz Eck­her von Kapf­ing and Liecht­e­neck, who was on friend­ly terms with Abbot Mau­rus I, since the Regens­burg bish­opric is vacant; Draft: Cos­mas Dami­an Asam, Munich, exe­cut­ed by mas­ter mason Michael Wolf and mas­ter car­pen­ter Johann Wen­zler, both Stadtamhof.

16th Octo­ber: Abbot Mau­rus I writes to the Spir­i­tu­al Coun­cil in Munich that he “took down the old monastery church, includ­ing old ruined gems and car­pen­try, and then had the foun­da­tion built up for the rais­ing of a new monastery church”.

1718

Octo­ber 9th: The Freis­ing prince-bish­op Joh. Fr. Eck­her con­se­crates the shell of the monastery church.

1718/19

Con­struc­tion of the brew­ery, ini­tial­ly only two stories.

about 1718–1722

Mas­ter stone­ma­son Pietro Francesco Gior­gi­oli also car­ried out the mar­ble work for the monastery church: para­pet and columns of the organ gallery, din­ing grille (1720); Con­trib­u­tor: Math­ias Einsele.

1721

Con­struc­tion of the Kloster­stadel with the gate­way to the monastery courtyard.
The skin cov­er­ing pic­ture of the church is signed and dat­ed: Cos­mas Dami­an Asam Pic­tor et Archi­tec­tus anno 1721.
Instal­la­tion of the high altar by Egid Quirin Asam in the monastery church.
Elec­tor Mnax Emanuel vis­its Weltenburg.
Octo­ber 19th: On the occa­sion of a first mass and the church con­se­cra­tion fes­ti­val, the preach­er P. Ämil­ian Reitl prais­es the church: “What was pre­vi­ous­ly the worst in Bavaria is now like every­one, and per­haps none of them…”.

1722

Philipp Franz Schle­ich, Stad­tamhof, builds a pos­i­tive organ with six reg­is­ters for the monastery church.

1723

Scaf­fold­ing will be removed from the church in the spring.
Com­ple­tion of the high altar accord­ing to the con­gre­ga­tion­al annals.

1723/24

Maria Salome Born­schlögl, née Asam, car­ries out bar­rel paint­ing work in the church (prob­a­bly on the high altar, as scaf­fold­ing had prob­a­bly already fallen).

1724

Accord­ing to the con­tract dat­ed Novem­ber 26, 1723, stone­ma­son Simon Schey­er­er, Mörn­sheim, had to deliv­er “half white and half gray” slabs for the church paving no lat­er than four weeks after Pen­te­cost 2000.

Feb­ru­ary 26: The Land­shut cop­per ham­mer­smith Ignaz Krans­berg­er deliv­ers 55 cop­per sheets, which are prob­a­bly need­ed for the roof and facade of the church.

March 31: Con­tract with the sought-after Vorarl­berg archi­tect and build­ing con­trac­tor Franz Beer von Ble­icht­en for the con­struc­tion of the three-sto­ry clois­ter court­yard along the Danube accord­ing to plans by Fr. Philipp Blank.

1724/25

Demo­li­tion of the old sta­bles and barns, new con­struc­tion of the afore­men­tioned wing by Franz Beer.

1727

Sep­tem­ber 10: Abbot Mau­rus I reports that he had to stop build­ing the monastery for lack of money.

1728

May 22nd: Con­tract with organ builder Johann Kon­rad Bran­den­stein, Stad­tamhof, the suc­ces­sor of Ph. Fr. Schle­ich, for the instal­la­tion of a twelve-stop organ (larg­er ver­sion) by Pen­te­cost 1729 at the lat­est; at the same time, Johann Cas­par Mair (Mayr), mas­ter car­pen­ter at Stad­tamhof, is com­mis­sioned to man­u­fac­ture the organ case.

1729

A stone stat­ue of St. Johannes Nepo­muk by the sculp­tor Franz Anton Neu from Prüf­ing is set up on the rock in front of the monastery gate.

1731

Abbot Mau­rus I had an apart­ment built for the monastery judge in the new ser­vice wing, which was ready for occu­pan­cy in the autumn.

1732

Stone­ma­son Johann Jakob Kürschn­er made the pul­pit from Wel­tenburg marble.

1733

A mas­ter mason from Regens­burg car­ries out the gar­den wall to the east of the monastery; Con­struc­tion of a wood­en sum­mer house in the monastery gar­den and the out­er monastery gate.

1734

Rais­ing the brew­ery by one storey; Pay­ment for 18,000 win­dow panes for the ser­vice wing on the Danube.

1735

Stone­ma­son Veit Füller (feel­er) from Kapfel­berg pro­duces the facade por­tal of the church until the birth of Mary (Sep­tem­ber 8th).

1734/36

Four side altars and stuc­co in the antecham­ber of the church by Egid Quirin Asam (1735/36); three altar­pieces (Cru­ci­fix­ion, St. Bene­dict, St. Mau­rus), the two wall paint­ings of the com­mu­ni­ty room and that of the east­ern end (prob­a­bly com­plet­ed by Franz Eras­mus Asam) by Cos­mas Dami­an Asam (1734–1736); fourth altar­piece (Coro­na­tion of Mary) by the Land­shut painter Matthias Daburg­er (1726). A mar­ble altar, which inex­plic­a­bly was to be erect­ed oppo­site the pul­pit, had to be giv­en in pay­ment to Cos­mas Dami­an Asam in 1736 and had to be trans­port­ed to Munich at the expense of the monastery. Church pews by the sculp­tor Franz Anton Neu, Prüf­ing (1735/36).

1736

Joh. Jak. Kürschn­er sup­plies four mar­ble con­fes­sion­als for the parish hall and vestibule.
The Danube Gate gets its lat­tice; the monastery court­yard is paved by an Ingol­stadt master.

1739

May 10th: Cos­mas Dami­an Asam dies in Munich with­out hav­ing fin­ished the ceil­ing paint­ing of the high altar room.

1740

Franz Eras­mus Asam, the son of C.D. Asam, fin­ish this ceil­ing fresco.

1745

Franz Eras­mus Asam paints the ceil­ing pic­ture in the antecham­ber of the church.

1751

Sculp­tor and stuc­co artist Franz Anton Neu, Prüf­ing, forms the stuc­co tops of the two con­fes­sion­als in the ante­room; the Wel­tenburg lay broth­er Joseph Koller takes care of the version.

1763

Franz Schmid, who lat­er became Frater Edmund, cre­ates a holy grave made of glass in the south­ern side room of the church vestibule.
The upper storey and crown­ing of the tow­er were prob­a­bly built by mas­ter mason Christoph Wolf from Stadtamhof.

1764

Par­tial renew­al of the south­ern mur­al in the com­mu­ni­ty room, which has suf­fered from damp, by the Munich painter Johann Philipp Helderhof.

1784

Dur­ing flood­ing, parts of the gar­den wall are dented.

1787

Con­struc­tion of five new pigsties in the monastery and the horse mill in the brewery.

1788

Gar­den wall repair.

1789

Again the gar­den wall and this time also the lat­tice gate of the monastery are destroyed by flooding.

1790

Organ pos­i­tive (4 reg­is­ters) by Andreas Fux, Prüfing.

1792

Secur­ing of the monastery gate by a car­pen­ter from Straub­ing and renew­al of the lat­tice; Organ repaired by Johann Lud­wig Ehrlich, Lauingen.

1793/96

Rein­force­ment of the shore by 633 fl.

1797

Recon­struc­tion of the gar­den wall.

1798–1801

Suc­ces­sive renew­al of the tow­ers of the gar­den wall except for two, which the flood could not damage.
Under Abbot Benedikt Wern­er, paint­ed blinds were installed in place of bro­ken win­dows on the first and sec­ond floors of the ser­vice wing on the Danube.

1800/01

con­fis­ca­tion of church silver.

1804

Deliv­ery of two church bells.

from 1842

Repairs to monastery build­ings and refur­bish­ment of some rooms with the sup­port of King Lud­wig I.

1865

Anoth­er restora­tion of the south­ern wall paint­ing in the parish room of the church by his­to­ry painter Franz Xaver Barth, Munich.

1874

Restora­tion of pres­bytery and high altar by painter Matthias Stadler, Kelheim.

1887/90

Inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion of the church: renew­al of the south­ern wall paint­ing in the parish room by J. Hertl, Regens­burg (1887); Restora­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty room includ­ing the four side altars and the vestibule by Matthias Stadler, Kel­heim (1888); Ren­o­va­tion of the main ceil­ing paint­ing (1889) and the wall paint­ing in the east end (1890) by Sebas­t­ian Wirsching, Munich.

1890

New cop­per roof­ing of the tow­er (in place of the pre­vi­ous shingles).

1908

A new organ (two man­u­als, 19 reg­is­ters) by Mar­tin Binder & Sohn, Regens­burg, will be installed behind the high altar.

1928/31

Inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion of the church (except for the ceil­ing paintings).

1935

Frater Angeli­cus Hen­fling, Ettal, paints the ceil­ing paint­ings in the refec­to­ry of the north wing of the monastery.

from 1957

Ren­o­va­tion of the church tow­er, pro­tec­tion of the church dome con­struc­tion, recon­struc­tion of the clock on the church facade. Ren­o­va­tion of the roofs and win­dows of the monastery as well as the plas­ter­ing of the facade, new paint­ing of the facade, drain­ing of the south­ern enclos­ing wall of the monastery courtyard.

1960/62

Inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion of the church: The col­or dis­tor­tion caused by the restora­tion from 1874 to 1890 is reversed. Ren­o­va­tion of the dome shell and main ceil­ing paint­ing by the Regens­burg restor­er Hans Krem­pel (1960); Restora­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty room includ­ing altars and murals by Hans Krem­pel (1961) and the altar­pieces by Harzenet­ter (1961/62); Ren­o­va­tion of the chan­cel, the high altar and the porch (1962); Removal of the Holy Sep­ul­cher from 1763.

1964

Con­ver­sion of the organ behind the high altar by the com­pa­ny Hirn­schrodt & Sohn, Regens­burg, which repaired the Bran­den­stein organ in 1931 and 1948.

1968

Ren­o­va­tion of the pos­i­tive organ by Her­mann Kloss, Kelheim.

1974

Open­ing of the St. Georg meet­ing house.

1980

Fur­nish­ing of the Fati­ma chapel in the adjoin­ing room south of the vestibule.

1992/93

Ren­o­va­tion of the Bran­den­stein organ by Georg Jann, Regensburg.

1997/98

Ren­o­va­tion of the monastery shop

1999–2008

Total restora­tion of the abbey church

2001–2003

Ren­o­va­tion of the prela­ture and the con­vent buildings

2003

Bene­dict foun­tain in the Kreuzgarten

2003–2005

Vis­i­tor cen­ter in the Felsenkeller

2005–2006

flood pro­tec­tion

2010–2014

Gen­er­al ren­o­va­tion guest house

2019–2022

Inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion of the shrine of Our Lady on the Frauen­berg hill