Bensheim Monastery
The Bensheim monastery in Bensheim an der Bergstrasse was founded by the Capuchins in 1628 and existed with interruptions until 1982. Since 1985 it has been continued by the Franciscans of the Upper Silesian Franciscan Province.
history
In the course of the recatholicization during the Thirty Years War , a Capuchin monastery was founded in Bensheim in 1628. On February 25, 1630, the Capuchin Order received permission from Anselm Kasimir von Wambolt , Elector Archbishop of Mainz, to build a monastery. By advancing Swedes they were expelled as early as 1631 and fled to Heppenheim . There they worked from 1642 to 1649 as chaplains , at times also as pastors . In 1649 the Capuchins returned to Bensheim, where they acquired a plot of land in front of the Auerbacher Tor in 1651. After 1651 the site was moved to the place of the burned down Rodensteiner Hof near the parish church. The foundation stone for the construction of the monastery church was laid here on April 1, 1653, and the construction of the monastery was completed in 1655.
The monastery in the center of the city was abolished in 1802 in the course of secularization and fell to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt . The last Guardian , Father Aegidius, died in 1826. From 1821 to 1911 the facility served as a Catholic teachers' college for Hessen-Darmstadt. During this time, the complex, which consists of a church and residential building, was significantly rebuilt and expanded.
In 1919 the Capuchin order bought back its old monastery, which was now owned by the city of Bensheim, in order to set up a monastery and mission school for the next generation of the order, the Fidelis College . The change of use took place slowly and was not completed until 1926. Nevertheless, the monastery school was opened on April 29, 1920 under the direction of Father Alfons. In 1926/27, the facility was converted for use as a monastery school.
The National Socialists dissolved the college , and during the war years from 1939 to 1945 the monastery was confiscated and served as a troop depot. Shortly before the end of World War II , the monastery church and the adjacent buildings were destroyed by aerial bombs. The priests undertook the reconstruction within a short time, and already in 1947 services could be held again in the newly built church, which is still called the Capuchin Church in the city today .
In 1985 the Capuchin Order gave up the Bensheim location. Since 1985 the monastery has been run by Polish friars of the German region of the Upper Silesian Franciscan Province ( Assumptionis BVM Provincia "Province of the Admission of the Blessed Virgin Mary", seat in Katowice ). For their branches in Bensheim, Berchtesgaden and Freystadt, the Franciscans chose the legal form of a non-profit association , “Franciscans of the Admission of Mary into Heaven eV”, following the name of the Order Province.
building
"The reconstructed parts of the monastery orient themselves in their Cubic essentially to the previous buildings: the gable permanent church is a simple stucco building with gabled roof , the gable wall is accented by a round window. Inside, a hall with a flat wooden ceiling, which is illuminated by high arched windows in the south wall. This opens with low basket arches on broad pillars to a side aisle , the choir is drawn in behind a high basket arch opening . An organ gallery above the entrance . The architecture here is determined by the traditional, conservative construction of the thirties. The same applies to the residential and college buildings, which - built on two floors over plinths - have hipped roofs and have simple square or standing perforated windows. The plastered core structures enclose a cloister made of red sandstone with paired, arched window and door openings that are supported in the middle by polygonal columns. The entrance door on the south building is closed like a basket arch with a keystone, next to it a large wooden crucifix from 1760, which originally hung on the gable wall of the previous church. "
In front of the church there is a raised forecourt with stairs, to the east of the church there is a bell tower built in yellow sandstone with a gable roof and cross. The tower was built in the 1960s, is supported by flat buttresses and has large sound openings in the upper area. The two-storey wing of the building with a gable roof adjoining the monastery to the north dates from the second half of the 19th century. Its windows are double and triple coupled and have red sandstone walls . There is a small garden with a beautiful iron fence between the wings of the building that protrude towards the Klostergasse.
Because of the war damage only a few interesting architectural details have been preserved in the monastery, a large, with a pinna cartridge decorated Arms Stein of the Mainz dean John of Heppenheim called by Hall (1653) and another with a Steinmetz sign -provided arms stone whose inscription on Georg Friedrich refers to Rodenstein (1655). In the choir of the church there is still the high cross from 1652, which was created after a model from the 14th century. Two Baroque sculptures formerly located in the monastery , a Mother of God by Martin Biterich (first quarter of the 18th century) and another Mother of God (Mainz, second third of the 18th century), were taken away by the Capuchins when they moved out; they are now in the Capuchin monastery in Münster or . Oberhausen-Sterkrade . The painting of a crucifixion from the first half of the 16th century and a picture depicting St. Fidelis von Sigmaringen from the 18th century are now in the Capuchin monastery in Koblenz . A canvas picture by Filippo Molini depicting St. Bonaventure and St. Francis (around 1657) is also in another Capuchin monastery today.
literature
- Franz Josef Schäfer: The history of the Capuchin monastery in Bensheim, the St. Fidelis College and the ordeal of the Capuchin Father Dionys Zöhren during the Nazi era . In: History sheets district Bergstrasse . tape 43 , 2010, p. 67-103 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Orden.de ; Homepage of the Franciscan Order, Rome, No. 076 ( Memento of the original of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Quotation: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Ref. 626 [1] . (accessed July 2013)
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 40 ′ 54.8 " N , 8 ° 37 ′ 23.1" E