Heidberg Monastery
The Heidberg Abbey is a Christian educational institution in Eupen and the only testimony to the monastic building culture of the 18th century in the German-speaking community . The complex was built in several construction phases between 1700 and 1727 as the mother house of the Order of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Recollektinnen, founded in 1623, and from 1854 on, instead of the originally existing small chapel, it was equipped with the Sacred Heart Church in neo-Gothic style. In 1966 the location was given up as the motherhouse of the order and the administration was moved to Ramersdorf near Bonn .
Between 1918 and 1996 the monastery complex served, among other things, as a lyceum and then, after the merger with the Collège Patronné, as the Pater Damian secondary school in Eupen . After the complex became the property of the government of the German-speaking Community in 2007 , it was converted into a seminar and event center and reopened in 2014.
The former monastery buildings have been a listed building since 1992 .
history
In 1623 Johanna von Neerinck founded with the support of the recollect father Petrus Marchant in Limbourg near Dolhain the community of the regulated Terzians of St. Francis, whose rules of the order were confirmed by the Pope in 1634. On the initiative of some nuns and the Mayor of Liège Theodor Goer de Herve, an application was made to the politically responsible King Charles II of Spain in 1698 to be allowed to build a new monastery for the order in Eupen. This approved the application with the condition that a public school for girls be set up there. Thereupon the nuns bought a meadow on the "Heidberg" around 1700 and had a spacious monastery built there in several sections. First, with the laying of the foundation stone on September 23, 1700, the north wing was built, followed by the east wing with the monastery chapel, consecrated in 1724, in 1722 and the west wing in 1727.
In these early years only daughters from well-heeled families were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and sewing. On May 1, 1740, the monastery was the victim of a robbery by plundering goat riders , but this was repulsed by a nun hammering the chapel bell.
During the period of French occupation from 1795 onwards, the monastery was also affected by secularization . However, with the commitment to open this facility as a general elementary school for the entire population, the sisters were allowed to continue operating the school and their right to live there, albeit in secular clothing. After the French withdrew and Prussia took over East Belgium as a result of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the sisters were able to run their establishment as a monastery again and put on their vestments again. In the next few years, Heidberg Monastery was very popular and the boarding school had to be expanded and, from 1828, a Sunday school and a knitting and sewing school had to be set up. In 1849, a neighboring property was also acquired and the residential building on it was set up as an additional boarding house.
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Finally, in 1854, the Order's leadership had the Sacred Heart Church built as the south wing of the monastery, which was consecrated on May 26, 1856 by Pastor Pauls and consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on July 9, 1868 by the responsible bishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne , Paulus Melchers , was solemnly consecrated . The thorn-crowned heart with a cross is a recurring motif in and on the entire building. As a result, the former old chapel was converted into a sacristy.
Before the First World War the construction of another school building was necessary and after the war the monastery was recognized as a state ten-year high school in 1918. In 1937 the school complex was expanded to include a kindergarten and in 1963 another new school building, as the remaining buildings were no longer sufficient in view of the constantly growing number of pupils, and in 1968 they were equipped with a large gym.
School extension Heidberg Monastery
School additions to Heidberg Monastery
Corner extension of the Heidberg Monastery
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In the meantime, in 1964, the Order's leadership gave up the location as the motherhouse and relocated the headquarters to Ramersdorf near Bonn, which had been founded as a branch in 1920 and was used for other purposes in autumn 2018 due to a lack of monastic offspring. From 1964 to 1972 the monastery and the school were run by the Annuntiatinnen from Heverlee bei Löwen and then came under the civilian direction of the "VoG Heidberg" ( Heidberg non-profit association ).
After a storm devastated the kindergarten building in November 1984, the foundation stone was laid for a new kindergarten on October 19, 1986, which, however, was only available for use in January 1988. Finally, in 1996, the merger with the Collège Patronné, a purely boys' high school, took place to form the new secondary school, which was named after Father Damian , a canonized religious priest of the Arnstein Fathers .
The further preservation of the old monastery buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries, which had been under monument protection since 1992, proved to be too expensive for the previous owner and therefore the monastery complex was offered for sale and for new uses. After the city of Eupen rejected a purchase, the parliament of the German-speaking community finally took over the Heidberg monastery in 2007 for a symbolic euro. On July 2, 2010, as a result of a lightning strike, there was a major fire in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, whereby the roof structure burned out completely, but the fire brigade was able to prevent it from spreading to the other monastery buildings.
After the official approvals for the renovation of the old buildings had been given, the conversion work of the former monastery into an education and meeting center could begin in May 2012 and the new facility was inaugurated on September 4, 2014.
Building description
Monastery building
The buildings erected at the beginning of the 18th century are laid out in the form of a three-sided courtyard and the majority of them are made of quarry stone . Only the north facade of the north wing and the inside of the monastery are made of brickwork over a massive base made of rubble stones. In the sashes, mostly cross-lattice or cross-lattice windows are built into the ground floor, whereas in the upper floors mostly rectangular and coupled windows were preferred, almost all of which are framed with block walls in a tooth-cut sequence made of bluestone . Slate was mostly used for the roofs and only a few window gables were fitted.
The first building erected in the years 1700/1701 the north wing spans 14 axes and consists of two white-washed floors, the lower the mezzanine floor is to be considered. The massive basement level below compensates for the slope of the site, which slopes from east to west towards the city, and is more of a built-out basement. On the west side of the north wing, an almost square three-axis pavilion with arched windows and a tent roof with a cross was added in later years . Although the pavilion with respect to the alignment of the north facade of the north wing projecting slightly, it is held yet this optically the same, but the basement now corresponds to a full unit in the highest at the location of the gate passage is embedded in the courtyard.
The east as a second structure from the year 1722 as a single-band via four narrow yokes and lancet windows built and equipped with a pitched roof covered. After the Herz-Jesu-Kirche was built, it was integrated into the new building as a side wing and converted into a sacristy. A stone worked into the masonry, on which a thorn-crowned heart with a cross and four stylized flowers at an angle and the chronogram: "CrVente Cor transfIXVM pIe aDorate" (= 1722) is engraved, confirms the year of construction of the chapel.
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The west wing of the monastery, built in 1727, served as the main entrance to the monastery, which is located on the south facade of the building. Above the hanging lintel there is now a cement wedge with the inscription "IHS 1698" instead of the original wedge with the chronogram : "ChrIste, saLVator ConserVa anCILLas tVas In DILeCtIone CorDIs tVI" (= 1727).
In the cloister corridor on the north side of the inner courtyard there is the same motif as a high relief on a bluestone frame with the year 1701. The grave slabs of the nuns were once on the floor here, which were set into the side wall after the renovation, including the grave slab of Goër de Herve, the founder and first nun of the house from 1722 to 1737.
The entire property was provided with an enclosure wall, which must have been built around 1707. This is evidenced by the structure above the neo-Gothic portal in front of the church, which belongs to the enclosure wall, in which a thorn-crowned heart with a cross and the chronogram "Cor ChrIstI aDoreMVs" (= 1707) are also incorporated on a square stone.
Sacred Heart Church
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The Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Sacred Heart Church), built from rubble stones according to plans by the Liège architect G. Philip, was built between 1854 and 1856 as a new south wing and is considered the first neo-Gothic chapel in what was then Eupen . The church, built in the style of a three-aisled basilica with its raised central nave and the built-in upper aisle, gives a broad impression and gives the building the character of an English country church. Even then, the architect's costs got out of hand and the new building was calculated to be twice as expensive as before.
The nave extends over five bays, which is joined by the slightly lower choir , which extends over two bays and does not have an apse . The individual yoke sections are separated on the outer walls by supporting buttresses and provided with a pointed arch window. The second yoke from the left on the street front is provided with a small portal building in front, which is the height of the aisle. Both this porch and the nave itself are covered with a pointed roof, whereby the nave was also equipped with solar collectors during the renovation after the major fire .
The bright and light-flooded interior of the church is structured by five powerful columns to the right and left of the central nave at the height of the partition walls, which are equipped with small capitals . Above these capitals, the columns merge into the pointed arcades of the partition walls.
The uniform church furniture was made in Roermond in 1856 and torn out in the 1960s after the dissolution of the monastery as the motherhouse and the first renovations, which led to massive outrage in the population. The station of the cross and the organ on a gallery in the area of the first yoke have been preserved.
literature
- Berta Ramakers-Breuer: The Hildegardis School on the Heidberg , in: Geschichtliches Eupen , Volume 41, 2007 pp. 167-171
- The monastery of the recollects on the Heidberg , in: C. Rutsch: Eupen and surroundings , C. Jul. Mayer, Eupen 1879, pp. 142–146
Web links
- History of the Heidberg Monastery on the homepage of the education center
- Portrait on ostbelgienkulterbe.be
Individual evidence
- ↑ Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Recollects
- ↑ Jutta Specht: Nuns move out of Ramersdorf Monastery , in: Generalanzeiger of October 27, 2018
- ^ History of the Pater Damian secondary school , on the school website
- ↑ Major fire in Eupen - roof structure destroyed , communication on BRF of July 3, 2010
- ↑ Heidberg Monastery , official opening speech by Minister Isabelle Weykmans on September 4, 2014, on the website of the Party for Freedom and Progress
- ↑ The boarding school was my home , in: Grenz-Echo from July 12, 2010
Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 1.2 " N , 6 ° 2 ′ 26.4" E