The joy is great in Ettal Abbey.
The Gothic portal of the basilica finally shines in new splendor.
The work cost around 100,000 euros, significantly less than estimated.
Now everyone is hoping that the church will be finished by the 700th anniversary of the monastery in 2030 and that a new lighting system will be installed.
Ettal
– The scaffolding is gone.
Finally.
After six years, in which the entrance area of the basilica was covered again and again for several months.
The joy at Ettal Abbey is correspondingly great.
"The Gothic portal now shows its venerable character," emphasizes Father Johannes Bauer.
"It's just as nice that the entire anteroom was prepared as part of the work on the tympanum." The cellarer of the Benedictine abbey soberly describes the impression it now conveys.
With the positive result: "The Gothic portal draws even more attention and the viewer can concentrate entirely on the depiction of the cross."
The road to get there was long.
At the beginning of the conservation of the medieval building, which dates back to the mid-14th century, there were extensive investigations and damage assessments, remembers Peter Aumann from the State Building Authority in Weilheim.
"The processed green sandstone was severely damaged." Parts were almost completely detached, entire rock sections bulged and the appearance, especially in the transition to the adjacent plaster surfaces, was desolate.
As a result, the prominent group of figures around the Crucifixion relief lost more and more of its plasticity.
“Mortarized” for the baroque renovation of the Ettal basilica
Another dilemma: In the course of the baroque renovation of the monastery church, the wall surfaces of the anteroom and the portal were also completely plastered over and redesigned, the head of the building construction department explains the problem that he and his colleagues were facing.
Father Virgil Hickl, head of the parish office in Ettal, calls it "mortarized".
At the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century, extensive excavations took place at the portal.
"The base area was plastered again up to a height of around 75 centimeters and painted white, presumably because of the unsatisfactory appearance at the time," says Aumann.
With the result: "The portal visually floated."
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As if it were floating: The plastered base area of the Gothic portal conveys exactly this impression.
© Thomas Very
In order to see what was under the plaster, the base was uncovered again in 2015.
It quickly became clear that "an adapted slurry had to be developed at great expense, which could be applied to the secured building structure as a kind of protective layer," explains Aumann.
But that's not all: "The electrical cables that were previously laid on plaster were laid in the plaster, this was done with the least possible interventions, so that as little as possible of the historical material had to be removed," says Aumann.
The existing paint containing dispersion was removed and the wall surfaces were smoothed where necessary.
All of this with the positive result: "The new lights in connection with the omission of furniture in the room now give the old building a worthy framework."
Hickl believes that the Gothic votive portal and gable really come into their own in the evenly lit entrance area of the basilica, which has been freed from all previous fixtures.
The scriptures can be found for several months in the southern adjoining room around the church.
"The portal is effective not least because it was freed from its plaster base, in which it seemed to be stuck or floating."
Final invoice is still pending
As far as the costs are concerned, Aumann cannot say anything yet.
"The final bill is still pending.
However, it is foreseeable that the measure, at around EUR 100,000, can be billed much more cheaply than originally estimated.” Initially, EUR 165,000 was assumed.
It remains to be hoped that the missing electrical parts will be delivered shortly so that the construction work can finally be completed.
This is also the concern of the representatives of the monastery.
"In view of our big anniversary, which we will celebrate in 2030, this work was an important first step," emphasizes Cellerar Bauer.
He and his confreres "would welcome it if, for the 700th anniversary of the monastery, the basilica would be dusted and fitted with a new lighting system".
An overhaul of the baroque organ is also on his wish list.
After the monastery had the churchyard redesigned to be barrier-free with considerable funds of its own and this brought the basilica back into focus, Bauer sees the milestone birthday as a good reason to tackle the remaining work.
"Of course, this requires the cooperation of the Parish Church Foundation, the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising and the Free State."