Franciscan convent (Valkenburg)
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The former monastery of the Cooperative of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Josef (FSJ) was in Valkenburg between Oostenweg and Steenstraat. It was a culture war monastery that was abandoned by the Franciscan Sisters in 1964 and sold to the municipality of Valkenburg. Today the main building and the chapel still stand.
prehistory
The cooperative was devoted to nursing the sick, caring for the poor, and educating and teaching poor children. Due to the monastery law in the Kingdom of Prussia , enacted as part of the Kulturkampf , only nursing could be maintained at the motherhouse in Schweich near Trier. Since the admission of new postulants was also forbidden, Mother Alphonsa tried to build a new monastery in the Netherlands for the novitiate. First the superior moves with eight sisters to Beek near Maastricht in a house they have bought and which is being expanded. Then several contiguous properties and houses can be purchased in Valkenburg .
The St. Joseph Institute
The sisters established the St. Joseph Institute to operate outpatient nursing and boarding school for poor children. After the monastery chapel was built in 1886, the new monastery complex with a nurses 'house and boys' school building followed in 1890/91. More parts of the building were gradually built until 1958. In 1964 the sisters sold the facility to the parish of Valkenburg and moved their mother house to the former Jesuit Ignatius College, where they set up the "Huize Boslust" nursing home.
Various possible uses were planned by the community, conversions were carried out, but larger and larger parts of the complex were vacant and a gradual demolition began until 1989. Since then, the main building and the chapel have been standing.
The construction
The main building and the chapel are in the corner between Oosterweg and Steenstraat and the front of the main building faces northeast and runs parallel to the Steenstraat. Forming an L-shape, the side wing extends in the southwest with the directly adjoining chapel up to Oostenweg. Everything is built in brick and faced with Valkenburger marl.
The building has nine window axes with pointed dormer windows . There is a sill cornice on the ground floor and a continuous cornice runs between the ground floor and the first floor . The eaves protrude slightly with wooden consoles. The whole complex has tall rectangular windows with cut stone cross floors, with the northeast gable of the side wing being more structured.
The chapel is a hall church and was originally only accessible through the monastery wing. Formerly a uniform, cross-vaulted room with the altar in the last yoke on the southern gable wall, today the chapel can only be reached through a separate entrance in the west, and a false ceiling has been inserted inside to provide space on the upper floor. The altar was moved to the north side and a gallery and a lift to the upper rooms were built in on the south side. The original windows are two-lane tracery windows that have retained their original glazing. The gable roof is covered with slate and crowned with a polygonal, slender roof turret.
literature
- Rita Müllejans: Monasteries in the Kulturkampf. einhard aachen, 1992 (publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archive Aachen, vol. 44), ISBN 3-920284-63-1
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 '57.1 " N , 5 ° 50' 10.9" E