Carmelite Convent (Neuburg an der Donau)

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The Carmelite monastery in Neuburg an der Donau was founded in 1661 by Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm . The building was in the old town on the mountain. Up to 81 nuns were at home here. The monastery of the Discalced Carmelites was closed in 1802 in the course of secularization , the convent was moved to Pielenhofen and the church and monastery demolished.

The Carmelite Convent

Emergence

The Karmelitergasse in the old town of Neuburg

The monasteries not only have their founder, their heyday, but also an adversary. Secularization robbed many orders of their property and drove away the monastery inmates. The Neuburg Carmelite Monastery also had to experience this career. Today only the street name "Karmelitergasse" reminds of this church institution.

Duke Philipp Wilhelm was not only a pious man, but also a great patron of the religious orders. He also emerges from the records of the Discalced Carmelites in Neuburg an der Donau as the founder. On May 28, 1661, Pope Alexander VII approved the construction of the monastery. The Duke soon resolved the question of space. In the old town on the mountain, corresponding properties could be acquired. On September 26, 1661, the Count Palatinate issued the letter of foundation in his Grünau Castle near Neuburg. He gave 20,000 guilders as capital to the fully equipped monastery. The joy of the work must have been great, then on January 1st, 1669 he topped up the cash to 30,000 guilders.

Eight nuns from Düsseldorf arrived for the construction of the monastery. The first prioress , Magdalen Bedingfield (1621–1684), was a native Englishwoman and came from the Catholic nobility. She was an aunt of the later Palatinate-Neuburg privy councilor Jakob von Hamilton . On April 23, 1663, the Augsburg Auxiliary Bishop and Duke Wilhelm carried out the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone. The preparations had long been made and construction was progressing quickly. Already on September 7th, 1663 the Church of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was consecrated. The sisters were able to expand the wing of the building, and the Lohnersche inn was right next to it, the owner was heavily in debt and the nuns replaced the dilapidated property.

The Convention

Princely crypt in the court church with mother Theodora, the prioress of the Carmelite monastery

The monastery flourished. 81 nuns enlivened the house, 70 of them were cloistered nuns, 17 of whom came from the nobility, and eleven were door sisters. 17 sisters from the city of Neuburg joined the Carmel. Landgravine Ernestine Elisabethe Johanna von Hessen-Rheinfels resigned after the death of her husband Landgrave Wilhelm IX. von Hessen-Rheinfels entered a monastery of the Augustinian Hermits in Kamp as Sr. Maria Theodora and in 1741 switched to the Carmelites in Neuburg. She became a prioress and died in 1775.

secularization

During the period of secularization , 80 nuns from Munich had to move to Neuburg. On August 12, 1804 it was said that the sisters had to leave the monastery and that they would be brought to Pielenhofen near Regensburg. On August 27, six ships were ready on the Neuburg bank of the Danube to stow the nuns' belongings. These included relics , church linen and vestments , as well as church images. On August 30, 1804, the ships set off.

The state sold the monastery building, it was demolished and five new properties were built on the property. The mortal remains of those sisters who were buried in the church crypt were transferred to the central cemetery, today the Franciscan cemetery. The body of Landgravine Mother Theodora found its final resting place in the Hofkirchengruft. Because of the addition of lime, her body was almost indestructible.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Schefers: Neuburg on the Danube. A brief history of the city. Special print, Munich 1988.
  • Neuburger Kollektaneenblatt 087 from 1922, publisher Historischer Heimatverein Neuburg / Thu.
  • A. Horn and W. Meyer: The art monuments of the city and district of Neuburg an der Donau, commissioned by R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1958.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See William Joseph Sheils: Bedingfield family (per. 1476–1760) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. University Press, Oxford 2004.

Coordinates: 48 ° 44 ′ 19.5 ″  N , 11 ° 11 ′ 3.9 ″  E