A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schwarzspanierhaus, The

by Alexander Wheelock Thayer

SCHWARZSPANIERHAUS, THE, or House of the Black Spaniards, into which Beethoven removed at the beginning of October 1825, and where he died March 26, 1827. The political and ecclesiastical relations between the two bigoted catholic countries Austria and Spain, in the 16th and 17th centuries, were very close and intimate. The Infanta, Marianne, daughter of Philip III of Spain, on her departure (1629) for Vienna, to become the wife of Ferdinand, took with her Prior Benedict von Pennalosa Mondragon, to establish a branch house of the once famous Benedictines of Montserrat in her new abode. Notwithstanding the very serious and earnest objections of the military authorities, she prevailed upon the Emperor to build a monastery on the outer border of the northern glacis, and the corner-stone was laid with great ceremony November 15, 1633. Fifty years afterwards (1683), on the approach of the Turks, the buildings were burnt, as a step necessary to the defence of the city. After the repulse of the Turks and the restoration of peace, Anton Vogel, a Viennese novice of the order, travelled through Italy, Spain and Portugal, and collected funds sufficient to rebuild the monastery of which he was, not unnaturally, then made Prior. This is the present Schwarzspanierhaus. On the accession of Joseph II. to the throne of his mother, Maria Theresa, the few remaining monks were sent into the Schottenhof or 'Scotch' Cloister, and the building was sold. The name originated thus:—A few minutes' walk west of the edifice was another monastery, also originally Spanish, of 'Trinitarians.' Their costume was white; that of their neighbours black. Hence the two became distinguished in local parlance as the 'White Spaniards' and 'Black Spaniards' (Weisse Spanier, and Schwarze Spanier), and that too, long after the last monk of Spanish blood had passed away.

South: looking towards Vienna.

Court.

a. Stair and Entrance. b. Ante-rooms. c. Beethoven's bedroom (23 ft. 6 in. × 21 ft. 6 in.).

d. Stove. e. Bed. f. Kitchen.

The Schwarzspanierhaus is that long range of building, with an old church at its western end, which stands in the rear of the new Votive Church at Vienna. Counting from the old church, the fifth to the ninth windows in the upper story were those of Beethoven's lodging, of which the above is a plan. The sixth and seventh windows were in the large front room, (c), and, in the corner opposite the sixth stood the bed on which he died. By raising himself in bed, he could see across the glacis the house—now long since demolished—in which Lichnowsky and Peter Erdödy lived; and a few doors to the west, that of Pasqualatti, where he himself had so long had a lodging.

From the window, again, looking to the right, diagonally across the square, could be seen the 'Rothe Haus,' the residence of Breuning.

The street which runs directly back from the centre of the Schwarzspanierhaus now bears the composer's name.

[ A. W. T. ]