Franciscan monastery Dresden
The Franciscan Monastery or Barefoot Monastery was a monastery of the Franciscan Order in Dresden , which was first mentioned in 1272.
history
The monastery was a foundation of the Meissen Margrave Heinrich the Illustrious . Since a provincial chapter of the Saxon Order Province under the direction of the Provincial , Brother Bartholomäus, took place in Dresden in 1265 , the monastery of the Franciscan Order founded in 1210 must have already existed at this time. However, an exact date of foundation is not known, researchers date the foundation to the time between 1240 and shortly before 1265.
For the first time the monastery was mentioned in a document from 1272 concerning the Seusslitz parish in the description "in domu minorum fratrum". A letter from 1279 mentions a brother Johannes as Guardianus in Dresden. In 1321 the monastery was enlarged under Margrave Friedrich I. Friedrich III. Founded a new church in 1351, which had been changed significantly until 1962 and became the Sophienkirche . A fire in 1407 is said to have destroyed a large part of the monastery buildings.
The Dresden Council administered the monastery income since 1410, as required by the statutes of the order, and appointed two monastery administrators among its men for this purpose. In 1539 the Reformation was introduced in Saxony and Catholic services and monasteries were banned. At that time there were still five priests and two lay brothers living in the monastery . In 1541, Duke Heinrich the Pious handed over the monastery and the monastery church to the City Council of Dresden, but they did not use the buildings. His successor Moritz taught in 1544 in the sacristy of the monastery an armory one. After the construction of an independent armory in 1563, the monastery rooms were used to store salt, grain and other provisions, a workshop for wine vats for the court cellar and the electoral brewery were set up, and other parts of the complex were set up as horse stables and coach houses. Until 1775, parts of the complex also served as a washing and cooking house.
Parts of the monastery buildings were demolished as early as the 17th century. Other sections of the monastery were demolished in 1775 and the last remains, apart from the church, were finally removed in 1820.
From 1947 to 1975 there was another branch of the Franciscans in Dresden, namely in the "Villa Odin", later the Holy Cross Chapel in Klotzsche (today Darwinstrasse 19). It belonged to the Silesian Franciscan Province ( Silesia ).
Location and monastery building
The monastery was founded in a "rather neglected place ... near the city wall ", as was customary for Franciscan monasteries in northern Germany at the time. It was near the margravial castle, behind the monastery the main arm of the Kaitzbach flowed .
The monastery was located at the northwest exit of the Große and Kleine Brüdergasse , which were named after him. The Kleine Brüdergasse was first mentioned in 1370 as perva platea minorum , the Große Brüdergasse was first mentioned in 1362 as Große Brudirgasse . Both streets were popularly called Klostergasse until the first half of the 18th century, and the entrance to the monastery was opposite the Kleine Brüdergasse.
The layout of the monastery, the buildings of which were kept simple and modest, can be traced back to a sketch made in 1550:
“The smaller monastery courtyard was surrounded by three two-storey wings and connected to the north side of the monastery church. Another courtyard with a summer house built in 1486, probably with seven cells according to the calculations, was on the northwest corner of the church. "
To the north of the monastery was the monastery garden. Opposite the monastery in the Große Brüdergasse was a rule house of the Order of the Poor Clares , whose confessor was the Franciscan monastery; the nuns attended the monastery service.
The Franciscan Church
- → Main article: Sophienkirche
The first church building of the monastery was a small and inconspicuous chapel, which was replaced in 1351 by an unadorned building in accordance with the rules of the order in the style of a mendicant order church . As a preaching church, the building had a hall-like interior that enabled all believers to hear the sermon well. The church was built with two aisles with two choirs and "therefore claims a special place in German architecture". Normally, single-nave hall churches were only converted into a two-aisled complex when there was a lack of space by adding a second nave.
Both naves of the monastery church were of the same height and were separated inside by three free pillars. In 1421, builder Nicolaus Moller extended the eastern part of the church to the west by two bays. In the second half of the 15th century the interior of the church was vaulted.
The church was planted in 1400 to the south choir, five meters wide and eight meters long, Busmannkapelle expanded after the founding family Busmann was named. It was designed as the family's burial chapel. The preserved console sculptures by Lorenz Busmann († before 1412) and his wife, which were placed in the chapel, are the earliest known depictions of Dresden residents. The members of the Busmann family belonged to the Franciscan Brotherhood and were buried in the traditional costume of the Franciscans.
After the Reformation, the church was used as a provisions room, among other things. For this, among other things, the windows were bricked up and grain floors were put in. The request of the city council to Elector August , formulated in 1555 , to allow the monastery church to be used as a sacred building again, was not complied with. Only when the old Frauenkirche and the old Kreuzkirche were no longer sufficient as burial places, a renewed application by the city council was granted in 1596. In its application, the council only asked for the return of the "church with the two grain floors and the small courtyard [s] against the Große Brüdergasse", but not the rest of the monastery properties. In June 1599, the city council took over the monastery church, which had been severely damaged by years of misuse and had to be repaired. Although the mediation of the court preacher Polycarp Leyser , Sophie von Brandenburg to win as financial backers for restoration, failed, the church was first named and after its restoration in 1602 as the "Church of S. Sophia" dedicated to the name "to Sanct Sophia". Sophie von Brandenburg later gave the church rich foundations and works of art, such as the Nosseni Altar .
Property and Income
The Dresden convent initially owned numerous orchards not far from the monastery, which, however, had to give way to the city fortifications under George the Bearded . In Dippoldiswalde and Pirna there was a termination house of the order, in which brothers who collected money within their begging districts (so-called "Terminanten") could spend the night. In contrast to the Augustinian monastery in Altendresden , however, the Franciscans did not have extensive estates.
Their main source of income was the funeral right, which was used by the lay brothers of the order. In Dresden, whole guilds , such as the shoemaker and tailor journeymen, were organized in the brotherhood of the Franciscans - the monastery earned its income from the funerals of these members. According to received monastery bills, the burial of a shoemaker cost between five and six groschen, that of a tailor ten groschen. The citizens, who often entered the order as lay brothers, were also of importance to the monastery as donors, so after the dissolution of the monastery in the course of the Reformation, the tailors demanded their donated chalice back.
literature
- Robert Bruck: The Sophienkirche in Dresden. Their history and their art treasures . Keller, Dresden 1912.
- Markus Hunecke: The Sophienkirche in the course of history. Franciscan traces in Dresden . Benno, Leipzig 1999.
- Georg Müller: The Franciscan Monastery in Dresden . In: Contributions to the Saxon church history. Issue 5, 1890.
- Stadtlexikon Dresden A-Z . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1995, ISBN 3-364-00300-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Analecta Franciscana: sive chronica aliaque varia documenta ad historiam Fratrum Minorum spectantia . No. 2, 1887, p. 76.
- ↑ Hunecke, p. 20.
- ^ Hasche: Diplomatic history of Dresden . Document book, Dresden 1821, p. 13.
- ↑ Bruck, p. 2.
- ^ A b Georg Müller: The Franciscan Monastery in Dresden . In: Contributions to the Saxon church history . Volume 5, 1890, p. 94.
- ↑ Hunecke, p. 27.
- ^ Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden. History of his buildings . Seemann, Leipzig 1966, p. 352.
- ↑ st-martin-dresden.de: Klotzsche Chapel , accessed on March 31, 2020.
- ↑ Bruck, pp. 2–3.
- ↑ Bruck, p. 4.
- ↑ Quoted from Bruck, p. 12.
- ↑ Bruck, p. 3.
- ↑ Bruck, p. 7.
- ↑ Hasche, p. 453.
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 5.3 " N , 13 ° 44 ′ 3.5" E