Konradsdorf Monastery

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The Konradsdorf Monastery near Ortenberg in Wetterau ( Hesse ) is a former women's choir monastery of the Premonstratensian women . It was built at the end of the 12th century on the site of a previous castle and a hall church as a convent .

Monastery church and provost house
Konradsdorf Monastery Church
Monastery church, interior view
Konradsdorf Monastery, "Nonnenhaus" (former Propstei)
The east side of the facility today (the Propsteig building on the far right)
Konradsdorf Monastery, entrance area
Konradsdorf, view from the "Nonnenhaus" to the monastery church

Geographical location

The remains of the monastery are located in Konradsdorf southwest of Ortenberg in the Wetterau district at a height of 150 m above sea ​​level , visible from afar, on a slight southeast slope above the Nidder river . You can find them within the walled "Hessian State Domain Konradsdorf", on the federal highway 275/457 between Ranstadt and the Ortenberg district of Selters . Konradsdorf Monastery is located on the Bonifatius Route , the 175 km long pilgrimage and hiking trail that has existed since 2004 on the traces of the funeral procession that brought the body of Boniface of Mainz to its final resting place in Fulda in 754 .

Monastery time

founding

The oldest surviving mention of the monastery comes from the end of June 1191. It can be found in a document from Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz .

Until the 1990s it was known that Gerlach I von Büdingen had converted a small Salian tower castle , built around the year 1000 at the latest, into a double monastery of the Premonstratensians here around or soon after 1147 , as a subsidiary of the Selbold monastery in Langenselbold and that it was donated by the latter Foundation from around 1270 only the nunnery existed.

However, this assumption was revised after archaeological excavations carried out in 1994–1996 and subsequent analyzes of the building history and written sources. The German Foundation for Monument Protection supported the archaeological excavations . Gerlach disappeared from the documents at the time of the Second Crusade 1147–1149. In the second half of the 12th century, his heirs built new castles in the area around Konradsdorf. Only then did the old castle in Konradsdorf become superfluous. The archaeological excavations showed that the monastery was only built around 1190: Remains of the previous buildings were found below the monastery buildings, including a previously unknown predecessor church from around 1000, as well as clear evidence of a later renovation phase. The walls and foundations of the previous buildings were used again for the monastery buildings, which led to sometimes very idiosyncratic constructions and also distorted the floor plan of the north aisle of the basilica . Construction and building materials are inconsistent, and only the areas of the church that can be seen from afar - the facade , the cliffs on the south side and the choir - were carefully built. It can be concluded that the work was either carried out in a rush and / or that there was a lack of resources. The patronage of the church was with Mary .

The monastery was first established as a house monastery and burial place for his family under Gerlach's son Hartmann. The church was completed in 1190/91 and was immediately handed over to Archbishop Konrad von Mainz along with the monastery. This donation was probably directly related to events in the empire: Archbishop Konrad was in 1165 by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa because of his partisanship for Pope Alexander III. deposed and by Archbishop Christian I been replaced. This offered no resistance when Friedrich increased his property to a considerable extent in the Wetterau at the expense of the archbishopric and the empire. This included extensive property in and around Gelnhausen and the construction of a palace there. As construction manager and bailiff of Gelnhausen, Hartmann von Büdingen, a close confidante of Friedrich, rose to become one of the most respected and powerful personalities in the empire. When Conrad I was reconciled with Friedrich I after Christian's death in 1183 and took up his second pontificate in Mainz, the archbishopric's holdings were greatly reduced. In 1189 Konrad complained in a document about the losses suffered during Christian's tenure. Hartmann von Büdingen was among those against whom he complained. In order to reconcile himself with the archbishop, he transferred the monastery to the archbishop and previously equipped it with a larger church. This could also have been the reason for a hasty building.

Structural system

Today three construction phases can be proven for the monastery church:

  • A hall church before 1000 AD with an associated settlement that was expanded into a small castle. The chronological order in which the church and castle were built cannot be proven.
  • At the end of the 12th century a women's monastery was founded and the church was rebuilt by extending the choir.
  • Shortly afterwards, the renovation work was stopped and instead a basilica was built in the typical shape of a Rhenish Premonstratensian Church of Our Lady with a nun's gallery.

The monastery church is a simple, three-aisled , transeptless, flat-roofed Romanesque pillar basilica without a tower or roof turret with a semicircular apse . There is also a two-storey Romanesque residential building from the 13th century with rich architectural decorations, which for a long time was called the "nuns house". It was the provost's office south of the monastery. These two remaining buildings are now unused and have been badly damaged over the centuries, but they are among the most important building ensembles of the 12th century in the Rhine-Main area . The convent buildings that have not been preserved were grouped around a cloister to the north of the church .

status

For the archbishopric, the small monastery was definitely valuable. Among other things, Konrad was able to set up a small archdeaconate there and thus curtail the power of the archdeaconate of St. Maria ad Gradus in Mainz . Konrad favored the Premonstratensians because, unlike the Cistercians, they were neither a monastic order nor an exempt . The pen was incorporated into the order on the occasion of the donation. The provost of the monastery was subordinate to the archbishop and could also act as archdeacon.

Within the order, the monastery was directly subordinate to the Prémontré Abbey and was not a subsidiary of a male monastery, as is usual with the Premonstratensians. Women's monasteries were directly subordinate to Prémontré either as a remnant of a former double monastery or as an incorporated, already existing legal organization. Since Konradsdorf (contrary to all older assumptions in the literature) cannot have been a remnant of a double monastery, it must have been incorporated into the order as an already existing organization. Like other monasteries in the area, it was probably an Augustinian choir convent . These were usually absorbed by the Premonstratensian order. The gentlemen of Büdingen had founded the collegiate monastery for Saints Martinus, Nazarius and Georgius in the nearby Mockstadt as a male monastery around 950 . Konradsdorf thus formed the counterpart for nuns.

Konradsdorf was a rather modest monastery that served to care for unmarried daughters of the local nobility. But it was also the final resting place of the Lords of Breuberg , four of whom were bailiffs of the Wetterau between 1239 and 1323 . The founding of the monastery was followed by centuries of prosperity in the Middle Ages . In 1333 64 sisters and 4 clergy lived in Konradsdorf.

After secularization

Territorial assignment

At the beginning of the early modern period , the monastery began to decline gradually, which was secularized in 1581 as part of the Reformation , which covered the entire Wetterau . The goods of the monastery were assigned to the Ortenberg office, a condominium that was formed by three sovereigns from among the members of the Wetterau Counts' Association . 1601, there was a real division of Kondominats, the former monastery Konradsdorf, now a farm , the Hanau-Münzenberg (from 1642 county Hanau fell). This in turn fell in 1736 with the death of the last Hanau count, Johann Reinhard III. , on the basis of an inheritance contract to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . The landgrave exchanged the property for another with the landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt . From 1810 it then formed part of the grand ducal Hessian office of Ortenberg . In 1821 the Grand Duchy formed the district of Nidda , into which all parts of the former Ortenberg office were merged and which was called Kreis Nidda from 1832 . After the revolution of 1848 , the administrative district of Nidda was briefly formed, but in 1852 the district of Nidda was revived. In 1874 the areas of the former Ortenberg district became part of the Büdingen district , which became part of the Wetterau district with the regional reform in Hessen in 1972 . The former monastery Konradsdorf was in the course of municipal reform in Hesse on January 1, 1972 in the city Ortenberg incorporated .

use

The house of the current estate

In the Thirty Years War , the complex was largely destroyed, the rest was used for agriculture. Even the church served as a cattle shed from 1781 to around 1910. Only then did monument preservation efforts begin , which ended the misappropriation of the church. After the First World War the property became a state domain. Today the 118 hectare estate belongs to the state of Hesse . The remnants of the monastery have been looked after by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse since 1959 . The complex, which is important in terms of art and culture, is of national importance. On the website of the palace administration you can read about the viewing opportunities: The two buildings are "taken out of the domain and are accessible to the public. […] [It] is asked to show consideration for the farm and to park outside the yard. "

State 2015

The facility was so dilapidated in January 2015 that only the paths leading around it are allowed to be viewed. The use as a venue for theater events, which was still possible a few years ago, is no longer possible today. The state of Hesse announced the repair of the vacant plant .

literature

Web links

Commons : Konradsdorf Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hessian state domain Konradsdorf . In: Agricultural and cultural heritage database . Society for Agricultural History
  2. ↑ Deep cracks in the masonry of the monastery . In: FAZ of January 8, 2015, p. 40

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 41 ″  N , 9 ° 1 ′ 26 ″  E