Kalvarienberg Monastery

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General view of the monastery complex Kalvarienberg (2008)

The Kalvarienberg Monastery was a monastery in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler on the Kalvarienberg , run by the Ursulines , to which a Way of the Cross with 14 stations leads up. The convent , founded in 1838, was closed on July 5, 2017 due to reasons of age, a lack of young talent and due to its poor economic situation.

history

View from the north of the monastery
Desis group in the apse
Crucifixion group in the church
Image of the blissful Blandine Merten with precious stone reliquary
Blandine Merten with relic

After his return from a pilgrimage in 1440, a knight noticed an alleged similarity between Ahrweiler and Jerusalem . In the Ahr of the pilgrims saw the brook Cedron , and the south facing hills seemed Calvary in the Holy City to be similar. Distances - according to the pilgrim - also matched. The route from the center of Ahrweiler to the hilltop is as long as the route from the Praetorium of Pilate in Jerusalem to Mount Golgotha . These "discoveries" were published, so that from then on the hill was called Calvary . The council and people of Ahrweiler soon felt obliged to move the high court away from said hill and to consecrate the hill to the crucified Savior and his mother. In the same year the first chapel was launched, a small half-timbered church that was consecrated in 1505 and which already contained a crucifixion group, which was later moved to the second chapel and finally to the current monastery church.

The monastery was built by the Franciscans in 1630 . On January 31, 1664, the foundation stone was laid for the church that still exists today. The old chapel was demolished on April 21, 1671, and the cross was erected on the tower on May 23. In the 17th / 18th In the 19th century, the Kalvarienberg monastery was the destination of numerous processions. The number of processions was 105 from 1714 to 1718. Religious plays (mystery plays) were performed on the Calvary. During the same period 150,000 confessions were heard and communion was given 150,000 times.

In 1803, in the course of secularization , the Franciscans had to leave Calvary, which became French national property. On January 30, 1806, Vicar Jakob Giesen von Ahrweiler acquired the Kalvarienberg, which after his death passed first to his heirs and then to the so-called Berggesellschaft . Various attempts to use the monastery rooms for teaching purposes failed. The Ursuline convent in Monschau , which was looking for another place to settle because of the unhealthy location of the monastery, found out about the vacant Franciscan monastery in Ahrweiler. After lengthy negotiations and many difficulties, the convent was able to move to Ahrweiler on August 28, 1838 under the direction of Mother Teresia Schäfer. The Ursulines initially founded an elementary and high school with boarding school for girls. In 1897 the old buildings had to give way to a new one, which was built according to plans by the Aachen architect Hermann Josef Hürth . New branches were established from Kalvarienberg, including a. 1848 Aachen , 1853 Trier , 1895 Saarbrücken , 1896 Krefeld , 1902 Koblenz . These monasteries remained connected to the mother house Kalvarienberg as a congregation.

In September 2016 it was announced that the monastery would be closed for reasons of age, a lack of young people and due to its poor economic situation. This was done in summer 2017. The large monastery church was profaned, but the sisters' choir with the valuable crucifixion group was preserved and is still accessible for church services and prayer, as is the reliquary of Blessed Sr. Blandine . Some of the sisters stay in a smaller apartment in the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

The Calvary was included in the 1996 Atlas of the European Sacred Mountains (Sacri Monti), Stations of the Cross and Places of Worship.

organ

The organ of the monastery church was built in 1871 by the organ builder Stahlhut in a neo-Gothic case. In 1991 a restoration was carried out by Weimbs Orgelbau . The romantically arranged instrument has 16 registers on two manuals and pedal. The playing and stop actions are mechanical.

I Manual C–
1. Principal 8th'
2. Bordon 16 ′
3. Viola da gamba 8th'
4th octave 4 ′
5. Fifth flute 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
6th Super octave 2 ′
7th Mixture III
8th. Trumpet 8th'
II Manual C–
9. Lovely Gedackt 8th'
10. Flûte harmonique 8th'
11. Dulcian 8th'
12. Distance flute 8th'
13. Salicional 4 ′
Pedal C–
14th Sub-bass 16 ′
15th Octave bass 8th'
16. trombone 16 ′

Facilities

On the Kalvarienberg in Ahrweiler, the monastery ran a high school and a secondary school for girls, as well as a boarding school . Since 1997 boys have also been accepted into the grammar school. The Blandinen Archive and the Calvarienberg Spiritual Center are located in the monastery . The schools have been transferred to foundations and will continue to operate after the monastery was closed in 2017.

literature

swell

  • Chronicon memorabilium et notabilium conventus montis Calvairae prope Arwiler. Fratrum minorum s. Francisci Recollectorum. (Chronicle of the Calvarienberg near Ahrweiler) . In: Gottfried Eckertz (Ed.): Fontes adhuc inediti rerum Rhenanarum. Lower Rhine Chronicles . Cologne 1864 (Latin, full text in the Google book search [accessed December 10, 2010]).

Web links

Commons : Kloster Kalvarienberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Closure of the monastery and church on the Ahrweiler Calvarienberg , General-Anzeiger (Bonn) , accessed on October 15, 2015.
    ursulinenkongregation.de: Kloster Calvarienberg Ahrweiler historical overview , accessed on December 27, 2018.
  2. ↑ Rheinischer Antiquarius. Dept. III, 10th vol., P. 14 ff.
  3. ↑ Notes on the Chronicle of Calvary . In: Gottfried Eckertz (Ed.): Fontes adhuc inediti rerum Rhenanarum. Lower Rhine Chronicles . Cologne 1864 ( full text in the Google book search [accessed December 10, 2010]).
  4. ↑ Closure of the monastery and church on the Ahrweiler Calvarienberg , General-Anzeiger (Bonn) , accessed on December 27, 2015.
  5. ↑ ursulinenkongregation.de: Letter from our Superior General on the current situation of the Calvarienberg Monastery on September 14, 2016 .
  6. ↑ More information about the organ
  7. ↑ ursulinenkongregation.de: Monastery Calvarienberg Ahrweiler Historical overview , accessed on December 27, 2018.

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 ′ 6.7 ″  N , 7 ° 5 ′ 31.6 ″  E