Carmelite Monastery (Speyer)

The Carmelite Monastery was a monastery in the Speyer suburb in front of the Altenburgtor, which was also known as Gilgen or Landau suburb. The Carmelite monastery was located on the area between Karmeliterstraße, Gilgenstraße and Große Gailergasse in the immediate vicinity of the old gate , which was also known as Altenburgtor and gave the suburb its name.

history

In 1270 the first Carmelites , also known as the “white brothers of our dear lady”, came to Speyer and were welcomed there by the citizens with open arms. The Carmelites were soon awarded a building site for their monastery in front of the gates near the old gate. This was built in 1294. According to Franz Xaver Remling's reports, the friars were very caring and held services not only in their monastery, but also in the parish of St. Agidius (also called St. Gilgen), in the parish of St. German and in the parish of Harthausen . The convent received generous donations from Cardinal Bernhard, the Speyer Bishop Eberhard von Dienheim and a Margrave of Baden.

Five brotherhoods were already living in the monastery when the prior of the convent and Speyer Auxiliary Bishop Heinrich Bock founded the St. Sebastian brotherhood in the church in 1426. From 1443 to 1465, Petrus Spitznagel was the prior here ; from 1444 he was also auxiliary bishop of Speyer. In 1464 it was planned to move the Carmelites to St. German, while the canons from St. German were supposed to move to the old gate. However, this was not implemented. Instead, the canons of St. German moved to the Moritzkirche . In 1498 a school for the novices was finally set up in the Carmelite monastery .

In 1487 the Carmelites housed the papal indulgence commissioner Raimund Peraudi for seven weeks . To commemorate the visit, a memorial plaque was placed on which the inscription “HOC IN LOCO FVERAT IVBILEVS AN INNOCENCIO VIII DATVS ANNO CHRISTI 1490” can be read below the relief coat of arms of Pope Innocent VIII . The board is now on the outer wall at Karmeliterstraße 2.

During the Reformation , the prior of the monastery, Fr. Antonius Eberhard from Speyer, joined him and preached as one of the first Luther's teachings from the pulpit of the Aegidia Church, which was later handed over to the Lutherans , while the brothers of the convent were Catholic Remained faithful to the Church. The city council, which had not joined the protest of the imperial estates at the Reichstag of 1529, let the prior as well as the prior of the Augustinian monastery Michael Diller have their way. Even in 1535, when the council did not appoint a Lutheran preacher out of consideration for the emperor in 1535, support continued.

In 1632, the monastery and St. Martin's Church in Altspeyer were destroyed by the Swedes as a result of the Thirty Years War . The brothers were spared after paying a large sum. A few years later the monastery was rebuilt.

The Palatinate War of Succession

When Speyer was occupied by French troops on September 28, 1688, Marshal de Duras used the monastery as his headquarters. Since the Carmelites, like many other citizens, feared that the city could be destroyed, Br. Gerhardus supported Marshal de Duras and General Montclar for the preservation of the monastery, so that de Duras finally gave his word that the monastery would not be destroyed.

The Carmelites, especially their prior Tiburtius a santo Matthia, are also responsible for the preservation of the nearby Alpörtel. At first the prior went alone to de Duras and asked for the old gate to be spared, but de Duras refused to receive it, as it could serve as an observation post for the enemy. The prior then stated that the tower could fall on the monastery and destroy it. But de Duras replied that the monastery should not be destroyed. In order to preserve the old gate, the entire convent fell at the marshal's feet and asked him to spare the tower, since the monastery could collapse due to the shock caused by the impact of the tower, as it was old and dilapidated. This reason convinced de Duras, so that he broke off the already prepared demolition.

On May 23, 1689 the evacuation of the city was announced, which was set on fire on May 31. Since the monastery continued to serve as the headquarters of Marshal de Duras and, like the Capuchin monastery at the Aegidienkirche, as a hospital for the soldiers brought from Phillipsburg, it was spared the town fire. While the citizens of the city as well as the religious had to leave Speyer, the Carmelites and the Capuchins (Aegidia Church) as well as the Poor Clares of the St. Clare Monastery were allowed to stay in their undestroyed monasteries with the tolerance of the French. The Carmelite monastery was so dilapidated that the Carmelites tried to build a new one after the citizens returned. The first step was the permission of the Speyer bishop Franz Christoph Cardinal von Hutten from November 22nd, 1746, with which he allowed the brothers to collect charitable donations for the construction of the new church. The foundation stone for the new church was laid in July 1747 and the church was finally completed in 1749. Subsequently, the church was blessed by Auxiliary Bishop Buckel. The remaining monastery buildings were also rebuilt between 1747 and 1749.

End of the monastery

As Remling wrote, the new building was hardly worth it, as the monastery was initially used for other purposes as a result of the revolution and was later closed. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, imperial troops came from Schwetzingen to Speyer on August 2, 1792 and used all the monasteries as accommodation or as a hospital. The exception was the St. Klara Monastery, whose nuns looked after the eight field bakers and their families who were housed in the hospital building at Wormser Tor (formerly the Holy Sepulcher Monastery ). The troop core withdrew to France just a few days later, so that only 3,000 men from Mainz and Hungary remained in Speyer.

The downfall of the monastery began with the siege of Speyer by French troops under General Custine , which began at noon on September 30, 1792 and ended with the conquest a few days later. The first serious consequence of the conquest was the instruction from General Custine, with which he called all religious to the War Commissariat on October 10 and had them informed that they had to pay 2,100 guilders within 24 hours. Just like the Poor Clares , the Carmelites succeeded in paying the required sums, so that no Carmelite was deported to Landau in the Palatinate as a hostage . The next day the French left the city after 10 days and moved to their camp near Edesheim and Rußdorf. During their stay, the troops had taught or destroyed the Austrian provisions stores , set all ships on fire, tore down parts of the city wall and filled in the trenches. The troops advanced to Mainz on October 18 and took over the fortress . Shortly afterwards, French troops came to Speyer again, and on November 12th they ate all of the monastery's food. The first freedom tree was erected on November 13th . On November 25th, the old administration was dissolved, the councilor Petersen was appointed mayor and another tree of freedom was erected. The fear of losing all their possessions, like the monasteries in France, grew among the Carmelites too. Because of the guarding, it was impossible to bring valuable objects across the Rhine.

For the residents of the city, the burdens caused by billeting increased, and the raw behavior of the soldiers was also a great burden. In addition, the soldiers confiscated signs and locked the shops. Similar to the Poor Clares, Carmelites were probably also forced to compile a precise list of property, mortgage notes and income from the monastery, and send it to the administration in Mainz . They were also ordered to take an oath on the civil constitution of the clergy , which they likely refused to do. After the order was repeated on February 27, the clergy fled secretly and in disguise at night.

As Prussian and Austrian troops drew closer, the Republicans began to drive away everything they could transport and set fire to the hay and straw stacks on March 31, Easter Sunday 1793. Around three o'clock Austrian troops with about 7,000 men finally moved into Speyer, on April 2 an additional 5,000 soldiers from the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt came to the city with their Landgrave. They were followed by other troops and prisoners over the next few days. On May 21st, order seemed to be restored, because the old city council was reinstated and the revolutionary order was abolished. But that did not mean that the Carmelites were allowed to return to their monastery, as it now served as a hospital for 300 wounded, so that the Carmelites had to move to a bakery. Ultimately, the peace turned out to be deceptive, as on December 28, 1793 it was heard everywhere in the city that the German troops were withdrawing after their defeat at Salmbach . As a result of this news, many people, probably including the Carmelites, fled along the Rhine. In the evening, when the French had already conquered Speyer, the imperial reserve artillery and 2000 people with countless carts crossed the Rhine near Mannheim. Where the Carmelites went is unclear.

When German troops crossed the Rhine on May 22, 1794 and expelled the French from Speyer on May 25, some Carmelites may have returned. But on July 14th, Speyer was conquered again by French troops, who pursued the defeated Austro-Prussian troops. In 1799 at the latest, the monastery, like the St. Clare Monastery, was finally dissolved, while the properties had probably already been declared national property and leased out. In 1803 these were sold to the tenants. After the revolutionary troops were driven out and the Palatinate was transferred to Bavaria, the royal salt depot was built on the ruins of the monastery before 1821. The buildings may have been demolished in French times, but at the latest in Bavarian times.

Today's remains

Today only the Karmeliterstraße, the Karmeliterwald, probably a wooded area in the Speyer district, and the already mentioned inscription reminds of the monastery. Pictorial representations are only available on Philipp Stürmer's ornithological plan The Free Imperial City of Speyer before its destruction in the Palatine War of Succession in 1689 and on the city map from 1730. On a woodcut from 1550 from Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia , an engraving from Frans Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum from 1537, one similar city view from 1600 and on the city view from 1637 by Matthäus Merian , the monastery is covered by the cathedral.

literature

• Franz Xaver Remling : Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria . tape 2 . Christmann, Neustadt an der Haardt 1836, p. 219–221 ( full text in Google Book Search).
• Brief historical description of the ruins and main public buildings of the district capital Speyer . Lang, 1853, p. 2–3 ( full text in Google Book Search - in the Google Books version, pages 1 and 2 are at the end of the book).

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Franz Xaver Remling : Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria . tape 2 . Christmann, Neustadt an der Haardt 1836 ( full text in the Google book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Fritz Klotz: Speyer - Small town history . 4th expanded edition. Speyer 1971.
3. ↑ Wolfgang Schieder (Ed.): Secularization and Mediatization in the Four Rhenish Departments 1803-1813. Edition of the data of the national goods to be sold. Part 4. Donnersberg Department . Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1911-2 , p. 397 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ↑ Konrad Engelhardt: Historical memories of Speyer based on the Speyer corridor and street names . 2nd Edition. Buchdruckerei A. Dieckert, Speyer 1934, p. 22 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 1.6 ″  N , 8 ° 25 ′ 54.2 ″  E