Franciscan monastery Mosbach
The Franciscan monastery in Mosbach in the Neckar-Odenwald district existed from 1686 to 1808. After the monastery was closed, some of the buildings, including the Franciscan church, were demolished. The remaining buildings were converted for use by the authorities. Today's Mosbach Regional Court and the health department are housed in earlier monastery buildings. The Mosbach prison is located on the site of the monastery church.
history
Franciscans of the Cologne Order of Colonia had already exercised parish pastoral care in Mosbach for a time during the Thirty Years' War . However, due to the change of faith in the Electoral Palatinate after the Peace of Westphalia and the subsequent reorganization of church conditions, Catholic services in Mosbach were banned. After the Catholic Elector Philipp Wilhelm came to power , religious freedom began in 1685. The Mosbacher Amtsschultheiß Johann Michael Speicher (1649-1724) won the Guardian Baltasar Breun from the Franciscan monastery Tauberbischofsheim for a new monastery in Mosbach. In May 1686 the first three Fathers of the Thuringian Franciscan Province from Tauberbischofsheim and Miltenberg came to Mosbach and moved into temporary accommodation in the Lower Bachmühle of the miller Johann Philipp Sohler (1660–1732), who was closely connected to Speicher through mutual sponsorships.
The foundation stone for a monastery church was laid in June 1686, and the first burial in the new Catholic cemetery around the church took place in September 1686. Instead of the church, however, a wing of the monastery was initially completed in 1688, which also contained a spacious house chapel, which temporarily served as an oratory for the Catholic parish .
As early as 1688, the Franciscans had to relinquish pastoral care to the secular clergy sent by the Würzburg bishop , but in the same year they also gained great support among the population through their efforts to save the city from destruction by French troops in the Palatinate War of Succession . In the following years the monastery was gradually expanded, finally the monastery church was completed in 1698 and was reserved for the monastery lords, while the Catholic parish received half of the simultaneously used collegiate church of St. Juliana .
The monastery church was probably a hall building with a barrel vault. It was on October 4, 1698 ordained , but at that time had probably no altars. The altar consecration took place on May 9th, 1700. An organ as well as liturgical equipment and pictures were added later. Instead of a tower, the church probably only had a ridge turret with initially two bells, which were supplemented by a third bell in 1743. The elector donated money for a church clock, and as a thank you, his coat of arms was placed above the monastery portal. The last stage of expansion for the time being was achieved with the paving of the church forecourt and the walling of the entire complex. From 1768 to 1770, the buildings within the complex were supplemented by two building sections. Elector Carl Theodor personally laid the foundation stone for the novitiate building on November 8, 1768. The costs for the Mosbach monastery buildings were borne primarily by the Thuringian order province.
Although the brothers were not allowed to work as pastors in Mosbach since 1688, they were still needed as supervisors and temporary workers within the Catholic parishes. Parish pastoral care was exercised by the monastery brothers in 1688 for the towns of Haßmersheim, Neckarelz, Nüstenbach, Lohrbach and Fahrenbach. In 1801 they were pastors in Haßmersheim, Hochhausen, Obrigheim, Guttenbach, Lohrbach, Fahrenbach and Bachenau. In addition to pastoral work, she also focussed on charitable tasks. Since the monastery had no land holdings other than the monastery property, it was dependent on alms , which were used not only to feed the brothers, but also to care for around 50 people in need every day.
The Franciscan monastery in Sinsheim was founded in Mosbach in 1714 . From 1720 to 1738 the Mosbach monastery had its own grammar school . From 1771, after the novitiate building was completed, the novices of the entire order province were trained in the Mosbach monastery . However, there was a restriction to a maximum of 30 people living in the monastery, so that out of 18 fathers and six lay brothers (in 1801) only a few novices could be accepted.
In 1802 the Palatinate-Bavarian Elector Maximilian Joseph ordered the abolition of the monastery. The collection of alms was forbidden as a means of pressure, but at the same time the monastery was assigned twelve penniless fathers from the Sinsheim monastery, which had also been closed. The friars then began selling the facility, which they were then forbidden to do. Most of the brothers left Mosbach in June 1802 without a livelihood.
In 1803, most of the Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine came to Baden with Mannheim and Heidelberg , while Mosbach became part of the new Principality of Leiningen , so that in 1803 the monastery was briefly reopened, allowing the priests responsible for the parishes in the surrounding areas to continue the complex to inhabit. In 1808 the monastery was finally closed. The three fathers and two brothers who remained in Mosbach were moved to the rectory, where they continued to look after the parish until 1812 as the successor to Pastor Stiefel.
After the Franciscan monastery finally ended in 1808, the remaining inventory was auctioned off. Some of the furnishings in the monastery church, including two side altars, the stalls and the pulpit, went to the simultaneous church of St. Juliana. A statue, a bench and a bell came to the Valentine's Church in Limbach, the high altar probably to Oberschefflenz. The old central building and the monastery church, which was described as dilapidated, were demolished, the remaining buildings were converted for use by government agencies and transverse structures were added. Parts of the monastery building went up in today's Mosbach Regional Court . The former house chapel of the monastery is now used as a large conference room. The former novitiate building now serves as the state health department. The Mosbach prison is located on the site of the former Franciscan church. Remains of the monastery wall, the old monastery fountain on the main street and the old well room are also preserved. A monastery garden was reconstructed behind the court as part of the State Horticultural Show in Mosbach in 1997.
literature
- Reinhard Wolf: From the history of the Franciscan monastery in Mosbach , in: St. Cäcilia in Mosbach 1935–1985. Church life in the past and present , Verlag Laub, Elztal-Dallau 1985, pp. 59–67.
Web links
- Franciscan monastery Mosbach in the database Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives
- District court Mosbach: monastery building
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sketches for the individual construction phases (PDF; 170 kB)
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 19.7 " N , 9 ° 8 ′ 55.8" E