The Benedictine Abbey of Ettal war founded in the year 1330 by the German Emperor Louis the Fourth, who was simultaneously the Duke of Bavaria. The Abbey has been in existence since then with one interruption between 1803 and 1900 due to the political upheavals of the Napoleonic Period. The buildings, originally built between 1330 and 1500, were redesigned during the 18th century in the then prevailing baroque style. Today the monastic community consists of approximately 55 monks. Their main activity is a private, coeducational from the state recognized high school (5th to the 13th grades) including a boarding school for boys. A number of practical activities keep the monastery economically solvent. The focal point of the abbey is the famous church, not only optically, but certainly also in the spiritual and intellectual sense. As she stand today we see a product of the 18th century. Her focal point is the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary from the 14th
century.
The former guest-wing of the monastery
Its construction history and its rooms
.
On the 19th of June 1744 a disastrous fire destroyed a large part of the monastery. The following years and decades witnessed a period of reconstruction and development. Johann Schmuzer (1683-1752) was responsible for the architecture; the interior renovation was probably completed only in the fifties and sixties of this century. Five rooms on this first floor were, and still are, connected through doors on the window-side. In three of the five rooms the original wallpaper is still extant. They were restored in the years 1980-81 and 1985-86.
The original paintings on the ceilings have been lost; with the exception of the stoves nothing in the rooms belongs to the original
furnishings.
The arrangement of the rooms, even though not too elaborate, is a so-called royal suite which a monastery like Ettal had to have at hand should the reigning sovereign want to stay here. Then these monasteries were not only religious institutions, but were are also dependent on the political
situation.
In 1747 the Bavarian Prince Max the Third Joseph (1725-1777) married Maria Anna Sophie (1728-1790), the daughter of the Saxon Prince August III, who was also the King of Poland. Thus in respect to the wife of the of the father of the land we can see the Dresden Room. The inner decoration of this room probably determined also the design of the rooms in the suite. Today we have the friendly-looking remains of former noble
times.
The Dresden Room
This room is named after the view of Dresden as it was approximately in the middle of the 18th century. From left to the right we see the Protestant Church of Our Lady, built by George Baehr between 1726 and 1743; the city castle (the residence of the Saxon princes) and the George’s Gate (redesigned in the 19th century); and to the rear the Hausmann Tower and the court’s Church (now the Cathedral) which was built by Gaetano Chiaveri (1720-1780). We also see the August Bridge, named after King August the Strong. On the other side of the Elbe River we see the Japanese Palace.
It is easy to see that this view goes back to two oil paintings from 1748 of the Venetian Bernardo Belotto who was called Canaletto (1720-1780). These painting can be found now in the Semper Galery in Dresden. A rather provincial artist reproduced these here in
Ettal.
On the east wall (where the entrance is) we have a view of Warsaw, the Polish capital. There we see the residences of the most important personages: the Saxon Palace and the Palace of the Polish Primate (the leading bishop of the country). The patterns from the upper edge come from a Warsaw city map by Pierre Ricaud de Tiregaille from the year 1762. (Thus we have a possible dating for the views in this
room).
Looking at the view on the south wall we have a sea dock by the Weichsel near Danzig (called the "Weichselmuende"). The original engraving has not yet been found. It is also possible that the view is the wrong way
round.
The wallpaper between the windows, with much poetic or artistic licence, is supposed to depict the Zwinger in Dresden. Actually you could not see this view in the original.
The brown-enameled stove which might be a model of the Munich courtly sculptor John Baptist Straub (1705-1784) puts an important accent to the room. Straub also designed the main part of Ettal’s Church.
The Blue Room
The name of this room is determined by the intensive blue coloring of the wall covering which is most notable by proper lighting. The burlap strips are painted with pure indigo, back then very expensive. The white ornaments were put on with white lead. The dark covering consists of wool died in indigo. Such a blue coloring of this intensity and quality is not known anywhere else in Bavaria.
In the areas surrounded by ornaments we see Chinese persons, either alone or two by two. They are all doing different things. At that time the Chinese designs were very much in.
The motifs which continually repeat themselves probably come from Augsburg.
The doors and the paneling are painted in the so-called "Smalte" technique (i.e., rubbed blue glass acting as a coagulant). It hasn’t been determined whether they consist of some particular architecture or are products of
fantasy.
The graphite-colored stove consists of an iron container which shows the double-headed empirial eagle with the date 1743. It is thus probably older than the
tapestry.
Except for the missing ceiling paintings, the room is, though now older, in its original condition.
The Chinese Room
This bright and well-lighted room was probably used for festivities and meetings of the noble guests. The wallpaper of textile is coated in green. On this the ornamental paintings were applied via woodblocks. Originally they were very garish, but have become lesser so through time. Here he once again see Chinese in different occupations. Dominating in this room is the green-enameled stove from the Rococo
period.
As opposed to the Dresden and Blue Rooms this room appears to be older due to the faded wallpaper. The candelabra from Murano dating from the late 19th century did not originally belong to this
room.
