Regensburg - Schottenkloster St. Jakob

A Benedictian monastery was founded by Hiberno-Scottish monks in Regensburg already around 1070. Soon after, the convent moved to a place just outside the city walls and in started to erect first buildings.

The first church, consecrated in 1120, was of such a poor workmanship, that the convent decided to tear it down (except one apse and the flanking towers) and restart the process. The church of today was completed before 1200. It is one of the most important Romanesque structures in Bavaria.

The abbey was a hub for the Irish/Scottish mission to central Europe. Daughter establishments of St. Jakob were founded in Vienna (1155), Erfurt (1136), Wuerzburg (1138), Nuremberg (1140), Constance (1142), Eichstaett (1148), Memmingen (1178), Kiev (!) (late 12th century) and Kelheim (13th century).

WHile the first monks and abbots were Irish, the Scottish period started after the Reformation with Scottish abbot Ninian Vincet (1577-1592). A century later Scottish priests were educated here to do missionary work back in Scotland.

Abbot Benedikt Aburthnot (1737-1820) could avoid the secularisation in 1802 by making clear, that the monastery was a Scottish (not at all Bavarian!) national treasure. It took upto 1814 to incorporate the Scottish monastery into the Bavarian sovereignty. Monastic life finally ended here in 1862, when the buildings were taken over by the bishop, who 10 years later founded a still existing seminary here.

The "Schottenkirche" is basilica with a central nave, two aisles and three apses. As the scottish monks did not follow the (Bavarian) fashion of decorating the interior in a Baroque style, the the church is still very much like it was built around 1200.

Inside the church, next to the doors of the northern portal is this nice relief. The monk (tonsure) is named "Rydan" - and I could not find out, where his name actually came from. Rydan, holding a bar to secure the door and having a key, may have been the doorman or gatekeeper. I doubt, that the horizontal position is the original one, though the hole for the bar is exactly in the right position. Noting the key and thinking of Newton, the relief may have been in an upright position in the beginning. Though Newton was not born, his law of gravitation was already implemented in the 12th century.