Augustinian Monastery (Basel)
The Augustinian monastery in Basel , first mentioned in 1290, was largely demolished in 1843/44. Until then, the building was used by the Basel University after the Augustinian Hermits abandoned it in 1528. In its place stands the museum on Augustinergasse , which opened in 1849 .
Construction and use
In 1276, Augustinian hermits settled near the Münsterplatz on what was then "Spiegelgasse", which was later to be named after them Augustinergasse . The earliest written record of their monastery is from 1290, but their land purchase continued until 1340. The building complex created an enclosed monastery district with an inner courtyard. The tight space conditions led to a monastery church , which consisted only of a main nave and a side aisle. In the context of the Basel Reformation , the monastery closed, into which the outside world had already penetrated when the city council had met there until 1521 . In 1528 the prior and the last five hermits resigned from the order and transferred the property to the city of Basel.
The Basel University was the former monastery in 1532 for their purposes. She set up classrooms, a home for scholarship holders (“Alumneum”) and an event room (“Prytaneum”) in the convent and company buildings. The university was already using another building on the Rheinsprung , a street in the extension of Augustinergasse that descended from the Münsterhügel into the valley town. Because of their location, the two buildings were named “Upper College” (Augustinergasse) and “ Lower College ” (Rhine jump).
The Upper College appears in Johannes Gast's collection of anecdotes Convivales sermones ("Table Talks", published 1541–1551) as a place for a meal with Johann Georg Faust . Gast writes that Faust dished up "rare birds" there and was accompanied by a dog that sometimes took on human form and served its master. The story is one of the earliest written mentions of Faust.
The use of the Upper College was expanded by the "Collegium musicum", which was the first institutional musical association (founded in 1692) in Basel and performed in the Upper College. The former monastery church fared similarly to the Basel Barfüsserkirche ; After the installation of intermediate floors, it served as a warehouse and fruit chute.
In the 19th century, the Upper College no longer met the requirements of the university. In 1836, planning began for the new construction of a multi-purpose university building, consisting of lecture, event, library and museum rooms, with the latter making up the main part. The building, ultimately simply called the "museum", was built in 1844 and opened in 1849. A considerable part of the outer walls was taken over, especially from the monastery church. The public collections that had previously been housed in the Haus zur Mücke moved into the museum on Augustinergasse .
literature
- Anne Nagel, Martin Möhle, Brigitte Meles: The art monuments of the canton of Basel-Stadt , Vol. VII The old town of Grossbasel I - secular buildings . Bern 2006, pp. 282–283.