Franciscan monastery Prenzlau

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Former Franciscan monastery church in Prenzlau

The Franciscan monastery in Prenzlau was a monastery of the Franciscans (also called " Barfüßer " or fratres minores "Friars Minor") in the city of Prenzlau and existed from the middle of the 13th to the middle of the 16th century. Only the former monastery church on Klosterstrasse, which is entered in the list of monuments in Brandenburg as No. 09130113, has survived.

history

The Franciscan Order, founded in 1210, quickly spread to the Baltic Sea in Germany in the 13th century and preferred cities for its settlements. Around 1250 monasteries were founded in Berlin and Szczecin . Around this time the Franciscans also settled in Prenzlau, which had received city ​​rights in 1234 . The monastery church was completed in 1253 at the latest, as Bishop Wilhelm von Cammin was buried there that year . It is a simple mendicant order church without a tower and was consecrated to St. John the Baptist ; in the second half of the 14th century a vault was built. The monastery buildings were north of the church on the city wall. It was called the "Gray Monastery" because of the color of the brothers' habit . It belonged to the custody of Stettin of the Saxon Franciscan Province and was in the diocese of Cammin .

In the 15th century the monastery had a considerable library with an emphasis on philosophy and was a study monastery for the training of the clergy of the custody of Stettin. Repeatedly it received financial donations from the citizenship, which it was allowed to accept with papal dispensation until 1509. In the disputes over the poverty issue in the Franciscan order at this time, the Prenzlauer Franciscans took a moderate position and were therefore in 1518 by the order leadership in Rome of the newly founded Saxon order province of St. John the Baptist , which included convents with a less strict interpretation of the rules of the order. However, as a result of the Reformation, this religious province fell as early as 1540.

The Reformation came to Prenzlau in 1543. The Franciscan monastery was abolished and in 1544 Elector Joachim gave it to Zacharias von Grünberg , the governor of Küstrin , as a knight's fief, which was followed by other owners. The city of Prenzlau received the bell of the Franciscan Church as a contribution to the casting of a larger bell for the Marienkirche .

In 1581 the aristocratic von Arnim family acquired the church and monastery building. Bernd von Arnim, Hauptmann zu Gramzow and Chorin , had the church repaired - which was said to have been a "Teuffels murderer", in which the gray monks drove "Abgoettereige" - and in 1598 it was rebuilt for Lutheran worship. The church was inaugurated “in God's honor and for the best of Christendom” and has now been named Trinity Church by Bernd von Arnim ; Calvinist teachings were expressly forbidden. From 1694 the church was used by the united (German-French) community until it had to be abandoned in 1774 due to dilapidation. It was not until 1846/1865 that it was restored or rebuilt to such an extent that the Reformed Church could use it again. The convent buildings were demolished in 1735 by Count Münchow. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Oels built a castle there, which later served as a city school. A school was built in the monastery cemetery in 1833, and the monastery garden ("monk's garden") became a community garden.

architecture

The Franciscan monastery church is a five-bay field stone hall with cross vaults and a small bell tower above the east gable from the middle of the 13th century. It is illuminated by lancet windows in groups of three in pointed arches. A pointed arched stepped portal in the second yoke from the west on the south side originally served as the main entrance. Traces of the sacristy can be seen on the south side of the east yoke.

Inside, slightly brushed cross vaults on semicircular templates and consoles form the end. The groups of three windows lie in flat panels; the choir is highlighted by a stepped panel with an inlaid round rod on the east wall. During a restoration in the years 1846–1865, an entrance room with a gallery above was set up in the east yoke and a sacristy was separated off in the west yoke. The neo-Gothic furnishings of the church were destroyed except for the sandstone pulpit with a sound cover.

The monastery buildings were demolished in 1735 and can only be seen in traces on the north wall of the church. After the roof of the church collapsed in 1991, it was restored from 1993 onwards.

literature

  • Carl Nagel: The Franciscan Monastery in Prenzlau. In: Franciscan Studies 21. Münster 1934.
  • Heimann / Neitmann / Schich: Brandenburg monastery book. Berlin 2007, pp. 958-966.
  • Ursula Creutz: History of the former monasteries in the Diocese of Berlin in individual representations. Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-89543-087-0 , pp. 218-221.

Web links

Commons : Franziskanerkloster Prenzlau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Creutz: History of the former monasteries in the Diocese of Berlin in individual representations. Leipzig 1995, p. 219f.
  2. ↑ Ursula Creutz: History of the former monasteries in the Diocese of Berlin in individual representations. Leipzig 1995, p. 220.
  3. ↑ Ursula Creutz: History of the former monasteries in the Diocese of Berlin in individual representations. Leipzig 1995, p. 221.
  4. ^ Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments. Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 , p. 888.

Coordinates: 53 ° 18 '53 "  N , 13 ° 51' 19.9"  E