St. Maurus Chapel (Mauruskapelle)

In 1868 the architect and sculptor Peter Lenz stayed in Beuron. He had received the commission from Princess Katharina von Hohenzollern to build and furnish the chapel in honor of St. Maurus, Abbot. Peter Lenz had created his own art theory. He believed that he could construct a "sacred art" with the help of "aesthetic geometry", "sacred measurements", his own "canon" and the numerical proportions of the Egyptians. His thoughts are written down in the volume “On the Aesthetics of the Beuron School” published in 1898.

While the design of the Maurus Chapel remained in keeping with the 19th century style temples that had no purpose for their purpose, the frescoes, especially the image of the Mother of God above the entrance and the image of the cross on the back wall of the altar, offer genuine Christian pictorial art. It contrasts pleasantly with the contemporary, emotional religious mood and has a refreshing effect on the future. The frescoes of two worshiping angels in the cloister of the monastery also date from this early period.

Lenz called in his painter friend from his time at the academy, Jakob Wüger, and his student Fridolin Steiner to furnish the Maurus Chapel. All three entered the monastery and formed a working group. When larger commissions came to this group, especially in Monte Cassino and Prague, all artistic talents from the monastery community were brought in and placed under the direction of Father Desiderius Lenz. However, the artistic work increasingly lost quality due to school operations and external influences. The severity was softened to popular appeal; the measure congealed into a pattern. Forms and motifs were adopted from early Christian, Byzantine and Pre-Raphaelite art and from Art Nouveau.

(c) erzabtei-beuron.de/kloster/kultur/mauruskapelle/index.html

Small unexpected chapel on the bike path ... There are benches opposite, where you can take a short break to pause a little ...

The chapel looks quite powerful, not as small and cute as you are used to from other chapels.