Door from the original Cistercian monastery Aula S. Mariae

1676 | Wood, intarsia, marquetry

The Baroque door from the Aula S. Mariae monastery is decorated with two ornately carved coffers with plain frames. The lower one contains a cartouche with the date 1676 and a currently unrecognisable coat of arms. The upper part is dominated by a relief sculpture depicting St Bernard of Clairvaux wearing a religious habit and a halo. The half-statue is surrounded by an inscriptional band with the text: “HAEC EST PHILOSOPHIA, MORTIS CHRISTI MEDITATIO”, followed by a crucifix and the Arma Christi (chalice, lantern, sword, flagellum, column, Veronica’s veil, thirty pieces of silver, dice, sceptre of reeds, hand, sponge on a stem, hammer, angels, cock, tongs, ladder, spear, decanter of gall, star, tongs, turin cloth). In the corners are depicted the attributes of the four evangelists with inscriptions with their names. The original location of the door is not documented, but it served secondarily as an entrance to the organ in the monastery basilica.