Frauenaurach Monastery

Frauenaurach Abbey Church 2012

The monastery Frauenaurach is a former convent of the Dominican Sisters in Frauenaurach , a district of Erlangen , in Bavaria in the Archdiocese of Bamberg .

The name was given to the Mittlere Aurach (ahd. For Ache in den Auen ), which bounded the monastery to the west and north and flows 1.7 km east from the left into the Regnitz . The facility is located at an altitude of 283 m above sea level. NN and comprised a total of almost 2.4 hectares plus the external agricultural areas. In the Bavarian original cadastre from 1808 you can still see the former fortress-like arrangement of the buildings around the monastery.

history

View of the monastery ensemble from 1871

The Dominican convent was founded in 1267 by Herdegen von Gründlach . The economic heyday of the monastery was under the abbess Elisabeth Auer (1436-1451). During the Peasants' War around 1525, the monastery was looted and the convent had to flee to St. After her return under Abbess Kunigunde von Wallenrod (1480–1549), the monastery was placed under the rule of the Margrave of Brandenburg. Around 1531, when the pastor was filled, Lutheran teaching moved into Frauenaurach. The monastery and church were largely destroyed by Nuremberg mercenaries. After the death of Abbess Kunigunde on April 8, 1549, the monastery and its possessions came completely into the possession of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach . A monastery office was established in Frauenaurach and existed until 1796. From 1616 Frauenaurach became a small margravial secondary residence. The remains of the monastery complex, which had escaped destruction up to that point, were largely removed in 1862, and a few fragments shown in the interior of the church have been preserved:

Remains of the wall from the cloister and dormitium on the west side of the cemetery
the outline of the courtyard formerly surrounded by the cloister (today: old cemetery)
Farm buildings (forge, mill) in the immediate vicinity.

The striking tower, crowned by a Welschen dome , does not come from the time of the monastery, but was only built until 1717. Although the church was actually consecrated to Mary, later to the evangelist Matthew, only the name "Klosterkirche Frauenaurach" is common. After the First World War, the Munich sculptor Karl May created a war memorial for the monastery church.