Grevenbroich Monastery
| Grevenbroich Monastery | |
|---|---|
 The former monastery church in 1895 |
|
| location |
 Germany North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Coordinates: | 51 ° 5 '19.5 " N , 6 ° 35' 24.8" E |
| founding year | 1297 by Wilhelmites |
| Cistercian since | 1623 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1802 |
| Mother monastery | Kamp Monastery |
| Primary Abbey | Morimond Monastery |
The Monastery Grevenbroich was a branch of Wilhelmiten and later the Cistercians in Grevenbroich ( Rhein-Kreis Neuss ).
history
The monastery was founded in 1297 by Walram, Count von Kessel. He and his wife Katharina called brothers from the Paradies monastery near Düren and assigned them a courtyard with a chapel, which was built in honor of God, St. George and St. Catherine was consecrated. The name of the monastery as Katharinenkloster, which can be found in medieval sources, shows that the saint was especially worshiped. In 1299 Archbishop Wigbold confirmed the donation and consecrated the chapel.
In the following centuries the monastery developed into the most important settlement of the order north of the Alps. The Counts of Jülich, who succeeded those of Kessel in 1305, showed themselves to be well-disposed to the monastery through multiple donations. In 1329 an altar donated by them was consecrated in honor of the Evangelist John. In 1329 a newly built chapel next to the monastery church is also mentioned. In 1574, Duke Wilhelm warned the prior to demolish the church, dining room and dormitory because they were dilapidated and to rebuild them from scratch. In the following year he assigned the entire property of the closed Königshoven monastery to the convent .
In 1628 economic hardship finally forced the monastery to join the Cistercian order under the abbot in Kamp monastery , who from then on appointed Grevenbroich Prior. In 1728 the two-aisled, essentially late-Gothic monastery church was redesigned, with the two aisles being given a baroque barrel vault.
In 1802 the monastery was closed and converted into a cotton mill. In 1823 the Roman Catholic succeeded. Parish to acquire the former monastery church. The old parish church of St. Peter and Paul, which has been rebuilt several times and was the patronage of St. Cyriacus was so dilapidated in 1820 that its immediate closure had to be ordered. After the monastery church was acquired, the parish church nave was laid down. The tower was only demolished in 1967.
The former monastery church, which was restored in 1823, retained its external shape until the end of the 19th century, but then ultimately was no longer sufficient for the parish, which had grown to around 2,800 souls, so the decision was made to build a new building according to plans by the Cologne diocesan master builder Franz Statz, the 1899-1902 took place. In the new neo-Gothic parish church, the ribbed vaulted choir from the 15th century was included as a northern, chapel-like aisle, while the rest of the monastery church and the small chapel adjoining it to the south fell victim to the demolition measures.
The nursing task of the Wilhelmite Order was initially continued in the former monastery by the St. Elisabeth District Hospital in Grevenbroich , which was later relocated to a new building. The monastery buildings adjoining the church, with the Bernardus tower named after the holy Cistercian Bernhard von Clairvaux , now house the Bernardusheim Catholic educational institution .
Bernardus Tower
Floor plan of the monastery church
St. Peter and Paul, old choir of the former monastery church
View into the old choir, now the side chapel of St. Peter and Paul
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literature
- Karl Emsbach, Max Tauch : Churches, monasteries and chapels in the Neuss district (= series of publications of the Neuss district. 13). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7927-921-X .
- Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the Grevenbroich district (= The art monuments of the Rhine Province . Vol. 3, 5). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1897, pp. 29–31 .