Vorarlberger Schule#

Vorarlberg School (Vorarlberger Schule), name given to a group of Baroque master builders. It developed from the guild of master builders in Au in the Bregenzerwald Mountain Region which was founded by M. Beer in 1657. The representatives of the Vorarlberg School were active in the south of Germany and in Switzerland until the end of the 18th  century. Its most important representatives came from the Beer, Moosbrugger and Thumbfamilies. The Vorarlberg School created a unique type of church building, also referred to as Vorarlberger Muensterschema (Vorarlberg minster plan), spacious hall churches built over a closed ground plan with barrel-vaulted nave and aisles. The collegiate church in Obermarchtal (in Swabia, by M. Thumb, started in 1686) was the first church designed and completed according to these principles. The buildings of the Vorarlberg School are mainly monasteries which fit perfectly into the landscape; however, all of them are located outside the contemporary Austrian borders. The only significant example of the Vorarlberg School in Austria, the collegiate church of Mehrerau, was pulled down in 1808.

Literature#