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 northern portal ("Schottenportal") is one of the most important (and largest) Romanesque works of art in Germany. It occupies a third of the church´s northern wall and is divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically, plus a small frieze that tops the central arch (the vertical center).

While most authors reckon, that Irish masters created this portal, Marcel Durliat sees parallels to works in Northern Italy, created by the Comacine masters ("Magistri Comacini"). He even connects this portal to the carvings in Linden and Remagen. I doubt that..

While the right side, just seen, had snarling male lions, the left side has five female ones. The have no manes and cute, soft (humanoid?) faces. The pillars are (just like the opposite ones) elaborately decorated with foliage. Two human faces look out of the capital of the central one. The kneeling person to the right seems to hold a cup or bowl.