Elisabeth Hospital (Marburg)

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Ruins of the Franziskuskapelle in Marburg

The Elisabeth Hospital in Marburg was a medieval medical facility, to which a 1228 dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi consecrated chapel belonged. For the first time this patronage was awarded north of the Alps.

Geographical location

The hospital buildings erected during the lifetime of Elisabeth of Thuringia were demolished during the construction of the Elisabeth Church , so that the archaeologically proven remains are now partly under the northern conche . The visible ruins of the Franziskuskapelle do not belong to the original building complex, which was about 110 meters north-northeast of it.

Motives for the establishment of the hospital

Elisabeth figure in the Marburg Elisabeth Church
Konrad von Marburg : Detail of a glass window in the Marburg Elisabeth Church

The establishment of hospitals was not uncommon in the 12th and 13th centuries, a high phase of urban hospitals. Elisabeth von Thuringia did not get involved in an existing charitable institution, but decided to set up her own foundation. Probably influenced by the women's and poverty movement, which was strongly pronounced in northern France at that time, as well as the ideal of poverty of the Franciscans , she decided to live in voluntary material poverty and charity. Contrary to what was assumed in the past centuries, it is now considered likely that Elizabeth will not be a member of the third order of St. Francis is to be counted because Konrad von Marburg , who took her vow, was not a Franciscan himself and therefore could not accept anyone into the Franciscan order.

The Hospital of St. Elisabeth

The dispute between Elisabeth and her relatives, which escalated after the death of her husband, Ludwig IV of Thuringia , was ended by a settlement in 1228, in which Elisabeth received compensation of 2000 silver marks and the use of land in Marburg. At the instigation of her soul guide Konrad von Marburg, Elisabeth moved her residence from Eisenach to Marburg.

Shortly after her arrival in Marburg, Elisabeth began to set up her hospital in an area with good infrastructure. This first building, including a "modest chapel" ( Capella modica ), was built after March 24, 1228 on Elisabeth's initiative on a headland between the Marbach and the Lahn .

"She also founded a hospital for the reception of pilgrims and the poor in front of the walls of the city of Marburg in the plain of the valley, because the city itself is on the mountain."

The existence of a natural flushing sewer system through the Marbach and Lahn rivers and the location directly in front of the city gates qualified this area for the establishment of a hospital. The source, located around 170 meters to the northwest, where the St. Elisabeth fountain can be found today, served as a drinking water supply. Good transport connections, important to keep the sick away from the city center, were also provided. The hospital was founded on a direct connection from Kassel via today's Marburg districts of Wehrda and Ockershausen to Frankfurt am Main .
In addition to the facility itself, the hospital area included Elisabeth's house and the chapel. The chapel had a choir with an altar . The area was enclosed by a fence, as a contemporary description reports:

"Many infirm and sick remained by the fence of the hospital and in the corners of the courtyard."

New building after Elisabeth's death

Floor plan of the Elisabeth Church. The medieval remains of Elisabeth's and Konrad's hospitals lie under the northern conche
Ruin of the Franziskuskapelle in Marburg with information board in the foreground

After her death, Elisabeth was buried in the hospital chapel on November 19, 1231. Due to the veneration that began immediately after her death, reports of miracles at her grave and the resulting large number of pilgrims , Konrad was soon able to build a stone church over her grave. In the spring of 1232 a new stone building (ecclesia lapidea) , the Konradbau, was built. It can be assumed that the new basilica no longer served primarily as a hospital chapel, but as a pilgrimage church. On August 10, 1232, the two altars of the new building were consecrated by Konrad, and on May 1, 1236, in the presence of Emperor Frederick II, the solemn elevation of Elisabeth's relics and their reburial at a "prepared place" (ad locum preparatum transtulerunt) took place. held inside the basilica.

After Konrad's death, the hospital was taken over by the Teutonic Order in 1234 and the Elisabeth Church was built at the location of the chapel on August 14, 1235. With the expansion of the place as a place of pilgrimage and the canonization of Elisabeth in 1235, the hospital chapel was demolished and the original burial site below was moved to the northern area of ​​the transept .

Following the completion of the north choir in 1244, the original hospital was demolished. A new hospital building was built in direct sight of the Elisabeth Church, of which the remains of the choir of the hospital chapel, which was consecrated to St. Elisabeth in 1254, are still preserved. Consequently, the demolition period can be narrowed down to the years between 1244 and 1254.

Archaeological excavations in the 20th and 21st centuries

Information board on the remains of the Elisabeth Hospital under the Elisabeth Church
In the square around the Elisabeth Church, the outlines of the old Elisabeth Hospital were made visible by an alternative floor covering.

From September 28, 1970 to June 25, 1971, Marburg's largest city ​​core excavation to date was carried out directly to the north of the Elisabeth Church. Under the direction of Ubbo Mozer, part of the area was revealed and examined. The aim of the excavation work - the aim was a complete mapping of the area around Elisabeth's hospital founding - was not achieved due to the deadline pressure of the construction companies who took care of the renewal of the cityscape. After a clash between the excavation team and employees of the construction companies on June 23, 1971, the archaeological investigations were ended.

Through his work, Ubbo Mozer was able to prove that Elisabeth built her facility in front of the gates of the city in a previously undeveloped area. The archaeological sources could partly be brought into line with the written sources, according to which Elisabeth is said to have built her "little house made of clay and wood".

The high mediaeval settlement findings include, on the one hand, the masonry of a building directly adjacent to the north conche of the Elisabeth Church, which indicates a mixed construction between the older post and the developed post structure. The findings, for example fragments of the edge of various spherical pots from the 11th to 13th centuries, indicate that this two-phase half-timbered construction was broken off with the laying of lead water pipes around 1260 at the latest. Based on the proven hearth, the function of a residential building is obvious. Remains of two other buildings can be found north of this, but no statement can be made about their function due to the lack of connection. Around the walls of the Konradbau a cemetery the size of 15 graves with 18 burials came to light. The arrangement of the hands parallel to the body, which is also characteristic of burials in Basel, Dessau, Schleswig or Denmark in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the knowledge that there was no church in this area before Elisabeth's arrival, allows the conclusion that that this is a cemetery established in 1228 at the earliest. The buried were people who maintained a high standard of living and did not belong to those who were looked after by Elisabeth. The theory of pilgrims or influential people wanting to be buried near the saints is more obvious. Further findings followed through the excavations in 1997 inside and outside the Elisabeth Church in 2009.

In 2009, larger sections of the medieval building were exposed in the area of ​​the north conche , which is noticeable due to a deviation of 20.5 ° from the east-west orientation. The Elizabeth Church built above only shows a deviation of 7 °. The dimensions of the discovered stone building are 28.60 × 10.50 meters, directly to the east is a chapel with a semicircular apse . In the west, the 10.50 × 10.50 meter outline of a square tower could be exposed. When redesigning the surrounding area, two different floor coverings were chosen and an information board was attached to indicate the excavation results.

literature

  • Thorsten Albrecht, Rainer Atzbach : Elisabeth of Thuringia. Life and impact in art and cultural history . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-123-2 .
  • Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 .
  • Ursula Braasch-Schwersmann : The Teutonic Order House in Marburg. Economy and administration of a late medieval rulership (= studies and materials on constitutional and regional history, 11) . Elwert, Marburg 1989, ISBN 3-7708-0907-6 .
  • Kurt Meschede: The Elisabeth Hospital in Marburg an der Lahn. A building and medical history monument from the post-Hohenstaufen era. In: Medical History Journal . 4, 1969, 2. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1969, pp. 139-167.
  • Werner Moritz: The hospital in the late Middle Ages. Exhibition by the Hessian State Archives in Marburg . Elwert, Marburg 1983, ISBN 3-7708-0757-X .
  • Klaus Peter Müller: Historical photos from the area of ​​the Teutonic Order at the Elisabeth Church in Marburg . Marburg 1982, ISBN 3-9800490-8-6 .
  • Bianca Nassauer: Elisabeth of Thuringia, a saint's vita . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-60578-3 .
  • Philipps University of Marburg , Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies (Ed.): Sankt Elisabeth. Princess, servant, saint. Articles, documentation, catalog . Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1981, ISBN 3-7995-4035-0 .
  • Alissa Theiß: A bell casting system from the grounds of the Elisabethkirche in Marburg. Investigations into medieval bell foundry technology (= research by the Institute for Archeology, Historical Monuments and Art History, 1) . University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86309-154-5 . ( Digitized version )
  • Wolfhard Vahl: Konrad von Marburg, Saint Elisabeth and the German Order (= writings of the Hessian State Archive Marburg, 18) . Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-88964-194-6 .
  • Paul Jürgen Wittstock, Katja Wehry: Elisabeth in Marburg. Service to the sick . Bing and Schwarz, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-925430-49-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Moritz: The hospital in the late Middle Ages. Exhibition by the Hessian State Archives in Marburg . Elwert, Marburg 1983, ISBN 3-7708-0757-X , p. 104.
  2. ^ Werner Moritz: The hospital in the late Middle Ages. Exhibition by the Hessian State Archives in Marburg . Elwert, Marburg 1983, ISBN 3-7708-0757-X , p. 108.
  3. ↑ Bianca Nassauer: Elisabeth of Thuringia, a saints vita . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-60578-3 , pp. 48-49
  4. ↑ Bianca Nassauer: Elisabeth of Thuringia, a saints vita . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-60578-3 , pp. 50-51.
  5. ↑ a b Ursula Braasch-Schwersmann, Christa Meiborg: Elisabeth von Thüringen: Her hospital in Marburg and the Teutonic Order branch in the 13th century. Archaeological building finds and written records. 2009.
  6. ↑ Ewald Könsgen: The life of Saint Elisabeth. Elwert, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7708-1310-0 , p. 58 f.
  7. ^ Thorsten Albrecht, Rainer Atzbach: Elisabeth of Thuringia. Life and impact in art and cultural history . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-123-2 , p. 38.
  8. ^ Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , pp. 30-31.
  9. ^ A b Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , pp. 31-32
  10. ^ Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , pp. 1-8
  11. ^ Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , p. 218
  12. ^ Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , pp. 29-53.
  13. ^ Rainer Atzbach: Marburg's holiest place. Excavations 1970/71 at the site of the founding of the hospital of St. Elisabeth . Rathaus-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923820-88-7 , pp. 59-88
  14. ↑ Ursula Braasch-Schwersmann, Christa Meiborg: Elisabeth von Thüringen: Her hospital in Marburg and the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. Archaeological building finds and written records. 2009

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 50.9 ″  N , 8 ° 46 ′ 12.3 ″  E