St. Aurelius in Hirsau

St. Aurelius in Hirsau has a very changeful past.

This was a three-nave Romanesque columned basilica with a nave and apsidal choir loft conclusion – the origin of which dates back to the year 1059. The nave extended across four bays. In the west, two massive steeples cordoned off the building. In the south, an enclosure with the Stations of the Cross was connected.

After the St. Aurelius monastery had become the property of Württemberg, Duke Ludwig had the steeples, the choir loft and the transept demolished in 1585. Then, the local Forestry Administration moved into that space with a magazine. The ""stone barn"", in fact a Romanesque memorial structure, was even sold in 1813 to be subsequently demolished – yet fortunately was preserved, even if diverted from its intended use and converted to a mere stall, saffron-factory storehouse, gymnasium, car garage and used for similar purposes.

The restoration of the nave of the formerly significantly larger church is considered a particularly successful example of monument conservation. In this context, in 1955, renowned artists were involved in the fitting: the sculptor Otto Herbert Hajek from Stuttgart – who created the reliquary (the shrine) in box form, and the artistic painter Prof. Wilhelm Geyer from Ulm, who designed the nine glass windows.

Precisely those nine glass windows were fitted by us with an interior-ventilated exterior protective glazing; the glass paintings were conserved. Due to the specific installation situation, here, too, a special solution for the protective glazing was required.