Königsdorf Monastery
Königsdorf Monastery is a former Benedictine monastery in the Königsdorf district of Frechen in North Rhine-Westphalia .
history
The monastery was mentioned for the first time in a document issued by the Archbishop of Cologne, Bruno II, before mid-August 1136 . At the request of the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Pantaleon in Cologne , the archbishop took the new founding called cellula under his protection with all its possessions. The new cell, occupied by nuns, shared the Pantaleon patronage with the Cologne monastery. The Cologne abbots supervised the Königsdorf Benedictine nuns until the 14th century. In a legendary fundatio later written in the vicinity of the monastery , a founding story that was written in the first half of the 16th century, the founding of the convent was moved to the time of Charlemagne. According to this report, the monastery was destroyed by the Normans in 881 and was reoccupied with nuns from St. Maria in the Capitol of Cologne at the time of Otto I. This founding report is rejected by research and contains numerous inconsistencies.
The divine service and pastoral care of the Königsdorf Benedictine nuns was provided by two monks from the mother abbey of St. Pantaleon. However, the new convention tried to gain independence from Cologne as soon as possible. In 1144, St. Mary is mentioned for the first time as the patroness of the monastery, in 1163 St. Pantaleon appears for the last time in a document from Abbot Wolbero, albeit already as a secondary patron. Since then it has been exclusively dedicated to Mary. Since 1355 there has been no evidence of interference by the Cologne abbots in the internal affairs of Königsdorf. In 1473 the Bursfeld reform was introduced in the monastery . The Archbishop of Cologne, Ruprecht von der Pfalz, commissioned the abbot of Brauweiler Abbey to do this . In 1511 Königsdorf was formally accepted into the Bursfeld Congregation at the Brauweiler General Chapter . There was a dispute between the abbots of Brauweiler, the Gladbach monastery and Groß St. Martin in Cologne about who was responsible as commissioner abbot . This dispute meant that the Königsdorf nuns were not visited for almost thirty years. Only from the middle of the 16th century was Königsdorf undisputed under Gladbach. Königsdorf remained under this supervision until secularization in 1802, to which the monastery church and part of the buildings fell victim.
Construction and plant
Nothing is known about the location and size of the abandoned St. Maria monastery church; excavation findings are not yet available. Several vaulted rooms, some in a Gothic stepped gable house, and parts of the cloister have been preserved in the farm complexes of today's monastery courtyard. Romanesque building fabric can still be found in the north wing of the cloister and in the gatehouse. The earlier function of the Gothic vaulted hall in the stepped gable house has not been clarified.
The crucifixion group from Großkönigsdorf and the Romanesque St. Aegidius Chapel have also been preserved on a courtyard that originally belonged to the monastery in neighboring Huegel .
literature
- Monika Barbknecht: Königsdorf Monastery , in: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland 5 (1988) 3, pp. 3–7.
- Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the Bergheim district , Düsseldorf 1899.
- Heinz Wolter: History of the Benedictine convent Königsdorf 1136-1802 , Pulheim 1995.
- Marion Sarna: Excavations on the grounds of the Benedictine monastery in Königsdorf , in: Königsdorf in the Rhineland. Contributions to his story (2011), pp. 157–188
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 7.2 ″ N , 6 ° 45 ′ 24.1 ″ E