Karmel St. Joseph in Cologne
The Karmel St. Joseph in Cologne , founded in the 1850s, was a subsidiary of the Carmel Mary of the Peace in the Schnurgasse, first established in Cologne in 1639 and repealed in 1802 . However, the new convent only existed until 1875.
history
After the French revolutionary troops took over the administration of Cologne in 1794 , the first Carmelite monastery, like most of the city's convents, was dissolved and their property was secularized . Valuable archives and the old library of the women's order, which had been based in the city since 1639, were confiscated . The sisters of the former Carmel St. Mary of Peace in Cologne's southern city had fled or lived in secrecy.
Start-up
The efforts begun in 1830 by the citizens of Cologne to obtain a permit to resettle the order were only successful in 1850. The first three sisters , then ordered to Cologne from a Liège convent, formed the basis of the revival of a Cologne Carmel. The small group of sisters quickly grew into larger numbers and became a community of fourteen cloister sisters , two cloister novices, and three outside sisters . These elected Sr. Josepha Herbertz from among their number as their first prioress . They moved into a property in the Dechanei of St. Kunibert in the north of Cologne city center and placed the Carmel under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception . From this first domicile , the sisters acquired a house and an adjoining property at the Gereonskloster in 1851, to the west behind the church of St. Gereon . The move to the monastery being built there lasted until 1853, when the community was able to move into the buildings constructed by the Cologne architect Vincenz Statz . The newly built Carmel was placed under the patronage of St. Joseph .
In 1856 Sr. Franziska was elected prioress . As a citizen of Cologne, she had been instrumental in getting permission to start a new establishment and later joined the order. She probably also initiated the construction of a chapel dedicated to St. Joseph , which was consecrated in 1863 .
Chapel of St. Joseph
South side
North-east side
Ornaments and tracery
The monastery church was built from red-brown brick in a neo-Gothic style. The chapel, built in an east-west direction, received a rectangular front facade on the east side. In this there was a stepped gable in the upper third , which ended at the top with a cross attached to it. The building was given a gable roof over its relatively short nave , which continued in steps over the choir . The pressure of the vaulted church ceiling was absorbed by buttresses , which were correspondingly smaller on the choir side due to the lower height. In the spaces between the pillars on the long sides and on the choir side, were with tracery provided arched windows installed. Pillar covers, windows and partially surrounding cornices made of tuff adorned the simple building.
End of the Carmel St. Joseph
Just a few years after the consecration of the church, the end of the Carmel in Cologne was on the horizon. Due to the many measures directed against the interests of the Catholic Church (including the May laws during the Kulturkampf ) by the Prussian government ( 74 religious branches were abolished in the Archdiocese of Cologne by 1877 ), the sisters went to Echt near Roermond .
In Echt, a new building was started, which was partly financed by the sale of the monastery in Cologne. The facility at Gereonskloster was converted into a girls' home. It was maintained by the foundation of pastor Jakob van Gils, established in 1854, and run by the Vincentian Sisters from Nippes . Services continued to take place in the St. Joseph Chapel.
It was not until 1896 that some Carmelites returned to build the Carmel Mary of Peace on Dürener Strasse in the new suburb of Cologne-Lindenthal .
Former chapel of Gereonskloster
North gate to the inner courtyard
Today's library
Vault detail
April 2011: The buildings previously surrounding the chapel have been torn down.
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The chapel, preserved as a trunk without the former facade, was integrated into the buildings of the former corporate headquarters of Gerling Versicherung (today Talanx ) in the “Friesenviertel”. The building complex was largely designed from 1945 by the sculptor and architect Arno Breker . The interior of the converted chapel, which is surrounded on three sides by a paved inner courtyard , was entered from the foyer of a side wing of the Gereonskloster. It is a vaulted nave with a vaulted choir with a 5/8 end . The ocher-colored vault ribs rest in the choir area on side consoles the white walls, the ship is bundled in addition to the capitals of two dark, from marble crafted pillars . The chapel is in good condition and has been used as a library and as a place for occasional conferences. An oval table made of fine wood that dominated the room and reached from the entrance to the choir niche was adapted to these purposes. Appropriate seating offered about two dozen people. All side walls were filled with extensive books and consisted of shelving cabinets that reached under the windows.
After the insurance company has moved to the Rheinhallen , the entire Gerling district will be re-used. The historic chapel of the Carmel St. Joseph is now used as a gallery for contemporary photography.
literature
- Carl Dietmar: Die Chronik Kölns , Chronik Verlag, Dortmund 1991, ISBN 3-611-00193-7
- H. Schnell: St. Mary of Peace, Cologne. Art guide no. 2601. Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH, Regensburg 2005 ISBN 3-7954-6567-2 / And volume 29 of the series Art Guide, large edition in 1958 published by the same publisher
- Historical archive of the Archdiocese of Cologne: Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne , official edition 1869, pp. 177, 320
- Historical archive Archdiocese of Cologne: Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne , 23rd edition 1933, chapter St. Gereon
Individual evidence
- ↑ A list of the confiscated property is said to have been in the holdings of the French administrative files, which were stored in the historical archive of the city of Cologne
- ^ H. Schnell: St. Maria vom Frieden, Cologne. Art Guide No. 2601
- ↑ Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne , official edition 1869, pp. 177, 320
- ^ Carl Dietmar, Chronicle of the City of Cologne, p. 261
- ↑ Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne, 23rd edition 1933, Chapter St. Gereon
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 35 ″ N , 6 ° 56 ′ 39.4 ″ E