Klarakloster (Heilbronn)

Remnants of the wall of the Klarakloster in Heilbronn

The Klarakloster was a convent of the Klarissen in Heilbronn . The nuns of the Heilbronn convent came from Flein in the late 13th century . The monastery existed until secularization in 1803, when the Poor Clares finally left the city in 1811. Most of the monastery buildings were demolished in 1876 and 1889. The monastery in Heilbronn is reminiscent of the Klarastraße at the former location and a remnant of the wall in Siebeneichgasse.

history

Heilbronn Klarakloster, city view by Johann Sigmund Schlehenried, 1658

Starting from the monastery of Söflingen , Poor Clares came to Flein at the end of the 13th century , where the Lords of Talheim had a small monastery built. The deed of foundation was allegedly still viewed by Karl Friedrich Jaeger in the early 19th century . He mentions the foundation year 1289. In the meantime, however, the certificate has been lost. The oldest documented information that can still be verified today dates from January 3, 1302, when the monastery had already been relocated to the safer city of Heilbronn with the approval of the Würzburg bishop Mangold after the rural Flein had proven unsuitable for monastery life in times of crisis. In 1310, Pope Clement V confirmed all the freedoms granted by its predecessors to the Heilbronn Klarakloster. In 1331 the Lords of Talheim (Konrad the Little and his son Konrad) waived all claims to goods that the father of Konrad the Little had once bequeathed to the monastery.

In the 15th century, the monastery owned in Adolzfurt-Scheppach, Beilstein, Böckingen, Flein, Frankenbach, Großgartach, Gruppenbach, Hausen im Zabergäu, Heilbronn, Holzweiler, Horkheim, Kirchheim, Kochendorf, Kochertürn, Neckargartach, Nordheim, Obereisesheim, Obergrießheim, Ödheim , Sülzbach, Talheim and Weinsberg. Unless they were farms with lands or vineyards, these were as Erb loans forgiven. In the early 16th century, there are also evidence of slopes and gulls from Binswangen, Botenheim, Dürrenzimmern, Eberstadt, Ellhofen, Eppingen, Erlenbach, Gellmersbach, Ilsfeld, Lauffen, Neckarsulm, Neuenstadt, Schluchtern, Schwaigern, Sontheim, Stetten and Wimpfen. The food of the monastery was obtained from the leased farms. A weaving mill, a wafer bakery, a wax drawing mill and parament embroidery also contributed to the sisters' further livelihood .

As in Heilbronn's Franciscan monastery of the male branch of the Minorites, the customs in the Poor Clares monastery gradually became secular, so that in December 1465 the monastery became the target of monastery reforms by Pope Paul II and the internal observance movement .

In the age of the Reformation , the city council of Heilbronn tried to reform the Klarakloster. However, since the Poor Clares adhered to the old faith, they were subjected to multiple reprisals and harassment. In 1525, the city council ordered the wearing of secular clothing, later preventing them from performing religious services. In 1542 the city even tried to set up a school in the monastery building, but this was rejected due to the poor structural condition of the buildings. In 1544, the city council closed the Franciscan monastery from which the Poor Clares had been spiritually cared for. Individual barefooted people who lived in a separate wing of the Klarakloster were still allowed to preach at the Poor Clares, but foreign preachers were forbidden. It was not until after 1624 that Catholic services were permitted again in the monastery church.

During the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War Heilbronn was captured by Swedish troops in 1632. Gustav Adolf then donated the monastery to the city and the sisters were expelled from the monastery. In 1634 the monastery was burned down by imperial troops during the siege of the city. After the city was surrendered, the magistrate was sentenced by imperial commissioners to return the monastery and to make amends for the damage suffered.

In 1803 the monastery was secularized . However, the convent of the sisters continued until 1811. The remaining liturgical devices came to the Catholic community. The buildings were used from 1852 to house female prisoners from Kochendorf, later as a school. In 1876 the convent wing on the city wall was demolished, and a weather vane on the roof, showing a Franciscan , was given to the Heilbronn Museum. The former monastery church was sold in November 1888 with the associated area of 543 m² and demolished in 1889.

Monastery buildings

Plan of the Klarakloster from 1723

There are no reliable sources about the appearance of the early monastery complex in Heilbronn. At first the monastery did not have its own church. According to various sources, this was either completed in 1380 or only built in 1420. The church was single-nave, Gothic and equipped with a polygonal choir. At 36 m long, 11.8 m wide and 10.5 m high, it was just as big as the St. Nicholas Church in Heilbronn. While the choir was spanned with a ribbed vault, the nave was equipped with a wooden barrel vault. The church seems to have been gradually equipped and expanded. In 1476 two Heilbronn barefooters created the choir stalls, and in 1510 the church was given a tower. The monastery did not have its own cemetery, but the church did have a crypt.

The western wall of the former Klarakloster was demolished on August 11, 1955. Today only a remnant of the wall on Siebeneichgasse of the former monastery complex is preserved. After the Second World War, remains of the foundations of a presumed pre-Staufer defense tower were found.

Furnishing

When part of the monastery building was demolished, two reliefs above the entrance doors were recovered, which came to the Heilbronn Museum, where they were lost during the war. When the monastery church was demolished in 1889, a 1.70 × 1.45 m sandstone relief, Christ's Farewell to his mother Maria , created by Hans Seyfer , was brought to the Stuttgart Lapidarium, where it was lost during the war. During the demolition, tombstones, a bronze cross and a pot with coins were found in the church crypt. Among the tombstones were stones for 13-year-old Maria Kempf, who died in 1623 at the time of the plague, 56-year-old wine merchant Carolus Venino , who died on September 10, 1693 , for widow Johanna Muria, who died in 1697, for Cellarius of the Schöntal court , who was buried in 1672 and for General Glowitz, buried in 1712. Three tombstones were brought to the lapidarium in Stuttgart, where they were lost during the war. These are described in detail in the catalog of the Royal Collection of Antiquities in Stuttgart from 1917.

When the large convent wing on the city wall was demolished in 1876, a weather vane on the roof depicting a Franciscan was given to the Heilbronn Historical Society. Later it came to the historical collections of the city, today it is exhibited in the Haus der Stadtgeschichte (Heilbronn) .

A small wooden annunciation group from the 16th century, which is now in the Bode Museum in Berlin , may also come from the Klarakloster . A replica of this group by Robert Grässle from 1929 can also be seen in the Haus der Stadtgeschichte.

literature

Marianne Dumitrache, Simon M. Haag: Archaeological city cadastre Baden-Württemberg . Volume 8: Heilbronn. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-927714-51-8 , p. 121 [Poor Clare Monastery].
Adalbert Ehrenfried : Barefooters and Poor Clares in Heilbronn , Heilbronn 1977
Wilhelm Hofmann : From the history of the Heilbronn Klarakloster . In: Heilbronn Historical Association. 22. Publication. Historic Association Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1957
Wilhelm Hofmann: The reform of the Heilbronn minorite monasteries in 1465 . In: Swabia and Franconia. Local history supplement of the Heilbronn voice . 3rd year, no. 1 . Heilbronner Voice publishing house, November 24, 1956, ZDB -ID 128017-X .
Willi Zimmermann, Christhard Schrenk: New research on the Heilbronn Klarakloster . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1993, ISBN 978-3-928990-42-4 ( Small series of publications by the Heilbronn City Archives . Volume 26)