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[109] Helizena, Wiltrud, and Saint Aurelius Church

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Helizena, Wiltrud, and St. Aurelius Church

The legendary Countess Helizena is said to have founded the first abbey. The subsequent Aurelius monastery fell into disrepair until Countess Wiltrud arranged for its reconstruction. It was later demolished, but the nave remained intact and is used by the Catholic community...

The Legend of Helizena (abridged)

Long ago, there lived a wealthy countess named Helizena. Every day, she prayed to God to show her a way to use her wealth. A voice spoke to her: “Use your money to build a church where three fir trees stand in a clearing!” She went down into the valley and found the spot, wept with joy, and hung her most beautiful dress on a tree. Her uncles, Counts Egwart and Leupold, rejoiced with her and agreed. Again she heard the voice telling her to gather men. And again Helizena did as she was told and called monks to the church...

Church from pre-Carolingian times?

In 1950, Erich Schmidt carried out excavations in the Aurelius Church and found interior foundation walls with columns, but without a transept, and “no less than three layers of soil on top of each other.” It may date back to pre-Carolingian times. According to Albrecht Kottmann, the underlying building dimensions do not correspond to Roman or Carolingian standards, but resemble the structure of Lorsch. This first monastery was probably founded in 764, and a year later the remains of Saint Nazarius were ceremoniously transferred there.

The church was probably built in the 11th century.

Wiltrud of Lorraine

The history of St. Aurelius Monastery began with the transfer

of the relics of St. Aurelius from Italy around 830. The first building for these relics was completed in 838. In the following period, however, the monastery was neglected by the Counts of Calw, causing it to fall into disrepair. Count Adalbert II, the nephew of Pope Leo IX, married Wiltrud, the daughter of Gottfried the Bearded, in 1049. She and the Pope arranged for

Adalbert to begin rebuilding in 1059. In the dispute between the emperor and the pope over the representation of God on earth and the appointment of bishops and abbots (Investiture Controversy), the monastery was almost destroyed in 1077. Following the example of Cluny and in order to update the rules of the Order of Saint Benedict, Abbot Wilhelm introduced the “Hirsau customs.” This resulted in an unexpected influx of monks, so that as early as 1082, construction began on the much larger monastery of St. Peter and Paul on the other side of the Nagold River.

After the consecration of the new monastery church in 1091, the Aurelius Monastery was initially downgraded to a priory and demolished after the Reformation in the 1580s. Due to secular use, the central nave and side aisles were preserved up to the crossing. This torso was reconsecrated in 1955 and has since served as the parish church for the Catholic community. After a long odyssey, parts of the remains of Saint Aurelius have returned to the church thanks to fortunate circumstances. A floor slab in the central aisle commemorates the original tomb of Berthold I of Zähringen (the Bearded), who died in 1078.