Reestablishment

In 1814 Austria recovered territories lost to France during the Napoleonic Wars. As a result Tyrol was reunited with Austria. On 12th January 1816 Emperor Francis (Franz) I issued an edict restoring rights and properties to the monasteries of Marienberg, Neustift, Wilten and Stams.

The Canons Regular monastery of Novacella was in a dire situation given that it had lost a large proportion of its land, the monastery building had fallen into disrepair, the church and monastery had been stripped of their furnishings and very few workers remained. The conditions stipulated by the Emperor for the re-establishment of the monastery were extremely exacting. In addition to providing pastoral care in the 18 existing establishments the community had to commit itself to provide teachers for the imperial grammar school in Brixen.  Initially it proved impossible to meet this requirement using its own brothers. Since the dissolution 13 canons had died, others were unwilling to return and in the short term there was no hope of obtaining a new generation of monks.

It took until 1844 for the Canons Regular to completely staff the Brixen grammar school. This ‘Augustinian’ grammar school enjoyed a high reputation and was run by Novacella until 1926 when, as part of their ‘Italianisation’ policy, the Fascist government closed it, as they did all German schools. Until the end of the 1960s it was run as a private school in Novacella. A boys’ choir institute was also opened in order to give young singers a firm grounding in singing and playing musical instruments while at the same time providing a general education.

Economically the monastery struggled hard to survive in the years after 1816. The situation gradually improved under the provost Ludwig Mair (1832 – 1851) and towards the close of the 19th century, in 1895/96 the first extensive restoration work could be carried out on the collegiate church.

Time and again during the First World War Novacella was occupied by soldiers. Apart from the small funeral bell and the fire bell, all others were taken away to make weapons and were only replaced in 1922. The Second World War was even more disastrous for Novacella. The German Armed Forces used the monastery buildings to store armaments and set up a printing works. As a consequence Novacella became the target of an Allied bombing raid on 23rd March 1945 which damaged the northern side of the collegiate church, the sacristy, the tower and the Chapel of Grace. The damage was finally repaired by restoration work in 1982 under the provost Chrysostomus Giner.