Cyriakusstift (Braunschweig)

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Braunschweig around 1550; the towers of the Cyriakus pen are marked on the right in the picture with the letter "N".
The pen (right in the picture) in 1539.

The St. Cyriakusstift was a collegiate monastery founded in the 11th century , south of the medieval city limits of Braunschweig .

The monastery buildings were demolished in 1545.

history

The monastery was founded around 1060 by Count Ekbert I († 1068), from the Brunonen family , and was probably built between 1068 and 1090 by his son Ekbert II (* 1059/1061; † 1090). The exact year of its completion is unknown. It is possible that the church was consecrated before 1079 by Bishop Hezilo von Hildesheim (* 1020/1025; † 1079). The crypt was designated as the Brunones family burial site. Ekbert II was buried there in 1090.

Cyriacus pen
Braunschweig around 1400.
Location of the Cyriakus pen on a map of the city of Braunschweig around 1400.

Location and architecture

The extensive monastery complex was outside the medieval city walls of Braunschweig, in front of the Wilhelmitor and the Bruchtor in the south of the city, on the site of the old train station built in the 19th century , today the seat of the Braunschweigische Landessparkasse .

The collegiate church was consecrated in honor of the holy martyrs Cyriacus and Quirinus and the holy cross and was probably a Romanesque basilica with two towers on a square base. Next to the church were the cloister, refectory , initially the dormitory and the collegiate school. In the 14th century, a Marienkapelle was donated, next to which the abbey library was built in the 15th century. A hospital, the dormitory of the collegiate students, extensive farm buildings and later also the residences of the canons are said to have been in the vicinity of the monastery core complex.

Stiftskonvent

After the Brunones died out, the patronage of the monastery went to Emperor Lothar III. to the Guelphs . The patron saint appointed the twelve canons , who formed the chapter of the monastery in the Middle Ages, and the provost , the administrator of the monastery property. The chapter, for its part, appointed the rector of the collegiate school, the vice-dominus, who drove in the monastery income, and the dean . The dean was the spiritual director of the monastery and, together with the chapter, had police power and secular jurisdiction over the members of the monastery and the members of the extensive estates.

Property ownership

A first detailed proof of the property of the monastery gives an inventory of goods from the period 1195 to 1227. Count Palatine Heinrich V (* 1173/1174; † 1227) confirms the monastery possessions in 34 localities, mostly east of the Oker im Derlingau , the ancestral area of ​​the Brunones. The largest possessions were in Büddenstedt near Helmstedt , Apelnstedt , today part of the municipality of Sickte , and Eisenbüttel , a village that was incorporated into the core town of Braunschweig in the 19th century.

In the 13th century, the land ownership was significantly expanded through the acquisition of goods west of the Oker, including places of today's municipality of Vechelde , such as Sonnenberg and Vallstedt , and a salt works , probably near Salzhemmendorf in today's Hameln-Pyrmont district .

The income of the monastery established extensive financial activities of the monastery. The Cyriakus Foundation acted as a lender for the council of the city of Braunschweig as well as the dukes, such as Wilhelm I in 1480 , and noble families, such as those of Veltheim in 1478 .

According to an inventory of goods from 1542, property ownership had already declined significantly before the Reformation and the previously brilliant financial situation of the monastery had deteriorated to such an extent that it had accumulated considerable debts.

and display information about the image
The Cyriakus pen (right in the picture) in the 16th century

Reformation and Destruction

After the city council of Braunschweig had decided in 1528 to carry out the Reformation in the city, the collegiate chapter also converted to the Reformation in 1542, before the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1568).

In order to protect itself from an impending siege in a military conflict with Duke Heinrich II , the council decided to strengthen the fortifications of the city by tearing down the monastery buildings. In 1545 the entire complex of the St. Cyriakus monastery was demolished. The grave of Ekbert II was transferred to the Braunschweig urban area, in the crypt of the collegiate church of St. Blasius .

The monastery convent also switched to the St. Blasiusstift, where the Johanniskapelle was made available to it. The St. Cyriakus Foundation existed as a corporation until secularization at the beginning of the 19th century. At times, both Braunschweig monasteries were headed by a joint provost, such as Duke Ernst Ferdinand (* 1682; † 1746) and previously his brother Ferdinand Christian (* 1682; † 1706). The last known canons included the museum director and Brunswick court councilor Ferdinand Emperius (* 1759; † 1822) and the writer and publisher Joachim Heinrich Campe (* 1746; † 1818), who was also appointed dean of the monastery in 1805.

From the liturgical implements of the monastery, some reliquary containers have survived, including a carved statue of St. Cyriacus covered with silver sheet. With other statues, monstrances and arm reliquaries, the Cyriakus statue, probably at the time of the destruction of the monastery, was included in the reliquary of the Brunswick Cathedral and forms part of the so-called Welfenschatz .

There are no structural remains of any of the buildings in the facility. Contemporary images of the collegiate church are rare. Only two woodcuts from the middle of the 16th century show views of the city of Braunschweig, with the towers of St. Cyriakus.

Apart from taking over the patronage, there is no historical connection to the Catholic Church of St. Cyriakus , which was built elsewhere in Braunschweig in 1973 .

literature

  • Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 57 .
  • Ernst Döll: The collegiate monasteries St. Blasius and St. Cyriacus in Braunschweig (= Braunschweiger Werkstücke. Vol. 36, ISSN  0175-338X ). Orphanage printing and publishing house, Braunschweig 1967, (also: Hamburg, University, dissertation, 1965).
  • Hermann Dürre : History of the City of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Grüneberg, Braunschweig 1861, pp. 419-445 .
  • Gerhard Himmelmann: The St. Cyriacus Abbey in Braunschweig 1196/97 and the first mention of localities in the Gifhorn district in 1996 (= series of publications by the Gifhorn district archive. 10). District of Gifhorn et al., Gifhorn 1996, ISBN 3-929632-28-4 .
  • Max Planck Institute for History (Ed.): The German royal palaces. Repertory of the Palatinate, royal courts and other places of residence of kings in the German Empire in the Middle Ages. Volume 4: Uta Reinhardt, Caspar Ehlers , Lutz Fenske: Lower Saxony. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-36513-6 .
  • Patrick M. de Winter: The Welf Treasure. Testimony to sacred art of the German Middle Ages. Tourist book, Hanover 1986, ISBN 3-924415-07-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hermann Dürre: History of the City of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. 1861, pp. 420-421 .
  2. ^ A b Max Planck Institute for History (ed.): The German royal palaces. Repertory of the Palatinate, royal courts and other places of residence of kings in the German Empire in the Middle Ages. Volume 4: Uta Reinhardt, Caspar Ehlers, Lutz Fenske: Lower Saxony. 1999, pp. 141-142.
  3. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. 1861, pp. 425-434 .
  4. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. 1861, pp. 436-437 .
  5. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. 1861, p. 445 .
  6. ^ A b Max Planck Institute for History (ed.): The German royal palaces. Repertory of the Palatinate, royal courts and other places of residence of kings in the German Empire in the Middle Ages. Volume 4: Uta Reinhardt, Caspar Ehlers, Lutz Fenske: Lower Saxony. 1999, p. 150.
  7. ↑ Ferdinand Spehr :  Emperius, Joh. Ferd. Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 93 f.
  8. ^ Gustav Baur :  Campe, Joachim Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 733-737.


Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 30 ″  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 8 ″  E