Lambrecht Monastery (Palatinate)

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St. Lambrecht Monastery Church, 2011
Historic engraving, around 1640, with the monastery church in its old original condition.
St. Lambrecht Monastery Church, facing west, with the nuns' gallery
St. Lambrecht monastery church, so-called Quirinus wall
St. Lambrecht monastery church, so-called Lambertus wall
St. Lambrecht Monastery Church, so-called Stifterwand

The St. Lambrecht Monastery was a Benedictine monastery - later a Dominican nunnery in the area of ​​the city of Lambrecht , in southern Rhineland-Palatinate . It was founded in 977 and abolished in 1553. The imposing convent church in the so-called Reduction Gothic style with medieval paintings was preserved; today the Protestant parish church of the community.

history

Foundation, endowment

In 977 (various historians also call the year 987), according to a document received in copy , the Salian Count Otto von Worms founded a monastery in honor of the holy bishop Lambertus of Liège on the western border of his territory, in the area of ​​the town of Grevenhausen . Grevenhausen is the original settlement of the current city of Lambrecht (Palatinate). The deed of foundation states, among other things:

“In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity. The current generation, who have made the pledge, and also the descendants who will follow it, should know how I, Otto, by the grace of God, Duke, in provision for the salvation of my and my parents' souls on the advice of my wife Judith and with consent of my three sons Heinrich , Bruno and Cuno , as well as the encouraging encouragement of Emperor Otto in love for the highest king and St. Martyr Lambertus built a house of prayer in the place called Gravenhusen above the bank of the Spira in the Wasigenwald in Speyergau . For this purpose I have ordered the following: Conscientious care in monastic life according to the Rule of St. Benedict should exist there in everlasting firmness; the monastery community and the place, including everything that has been handed over in all forms and will still have to be handed over, remain in undiminished freedom and the community itself should never have to suffer from easements, demands or decisions, whether from kings, any of mine Descendants, a prince or a secular power. Only the eldest of my clan is supposed to be the guardian to defend the monastery family and the place against injustice. "

- From Duke Otto's deed of foundation

Benedictine monastery

The Benedictines did pioneering work in the remote forest valley and the richly endowed Salian house monastery developed well. The ruling family held their protective hand over it for almost a century; However, their political rise ultimately caused the decline of St. Lambrecht. Konrad II , the grandson of the monastery founder Otto, had become Roman Emperor in 1027 and founded the Speyer Cathedral as a family burial place . In 1065 , his grandson Heinrich IV transferred the nearby St. Lambrecht Monastery to the Speyer cathedral to provide financial support . As a result, many slopes flowed from now on to Speyer and benefited from the expansion of the cathedral there. Nevertheless, the convent initially continued to flourish under the new lord, the Speyer bishop . A document from 1172 shows extensive business relationships, as far as the Rhineland and Westphalia. The monks built a cruciform basilica, the foundation walls of which were found during excavations in 1979/80. The place Lambrecht developed around the monastery; An explicit mention of the village settlement as "villa St. Lamberti" is first found in a Leiningen inheritance contract of Bishop Konrad von Eberstein from the year 1237. Later the community grew together with the older Grevenhausen. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Benedictine convent lost its importance, especially since it was financially run down and many properties had to be pledged or sold.

Dominican convent

To save the monastery, Bishop Konrad von Eberstein decided to take drastic measures. He had the Benedictines removed from St. Lambrecht and occupied the monastery with Dominican women. The bishop in Speyer had already had the best experiences with so-called regrets , who also lived in Rome according to the rule of the Dominican Sisters of San Sisto . The change was confirmed by Pope Innocent IV on April 15, 1244. The nuns led an exemplary religious life combined with great diligence. The financial situation developed strongly, and foundations and gifts were added. St. Lambrecht became the richest Dominican monastery in the Palatinate and Rheinhessen. At that time, the sisters had a magnificent monastery church built, which is still largely preserved. A short time after its completion, under the well-deserved Prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein, the church interior was lavishly painted using Secco technology . Later in the anti-image Reformation period, the works of art were whitewashed, but five large-scale painted walls of the choir were exposed and restored in the second half of the 20th century. These paintings are among the main attractions of the Palatinate city today. The central front wall is decorated with the vita of the plague patron St. Quirinus , in a multitude of individual images. Also noteworthy are a depiction of the church patron St. Lambertus, one of the oldest known of him, and a depiction of Mary with two nuns, one of which can be identified by a tape as the prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein († August 10, 1353).

Countess Agnes von Orlamünde, widow Count Otto III. von Orlamünde entered here as a Dominican in 1292 . The order master Munio von Zamora personally sent her a letter of congratulations on joining and gave his consent that the strict rules of the order would be somewhat relaxed for her. She was a great benefactress of the monastery and, according to the local Seelbuch, died on November 25th, whereby the year is not mentioned; it is said to have been around 1300.

In the middle of the 15th century, the Speyer bishop had the convent reformed according to papal instructions. Under the prioress Agnes Sendeln, the monastery experienced its last heyday. Troops of Duke Alexander von Zweibrücken looted it in 1505, and in 1525 it was damaged again in the Peasants' War .

Repeal

The convent of nuns did not recover from this devastation, especially since the times also hindered new entries by sisters. The Palatinate Elector Friedrich II , who was already inclined towards the Reformation, tried to abolish twelve monasteries in his domain and to transfer the temporal property to the University of Heidelberg . St. Lambrecht was one of those twelve monasteries. Pope Julius III commissioned the nuncio Sebastian Pighi to visit the convents. He found it partly completely deserted, partly so close to its decay that he had no hesitation in complying with the elector's wishes. The Pope issued a related bull in 1551 , but attached the following conditions to the repeal of St. Lambrecht, which were never honored by the Electoral Palatinate :

“... that the nuns still living there, whose consent to the abolition is assumed, receive lifelong maintenance and clothing; that a priest should also be posted at the monastery church to take care of worship and to instruct the people in the true faith; that finally, even after the nuns had died, this priest would remain there, in order to commemorate the monastery, to prepare four poor, freely fed youths for higher education and to hold daily choir prayers with them . "

- Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria

As a result of the papal approval, a notary, the Neustadter Landschreiber , as well as the electoral deputies Hailes and Kastner, Magister Konrad Dym, the head of the Heidelberg Faculty of Law, Johannes Wagenmann († 1557), professor of medicine and rector , appeared on Saturday, September 2, 1553 of the University of Heidelberg and Wendelin Sprenger, Dean of the Holy Spirit Foundation in Heidelberg to take possession of the monastery with all temporal goods, slopes and rights. The nuns Ursula Joch (in) from Kandel (last prioress) were still there; the sexton Elisabetha von Buchen and the sisters Elisabetha von Neidenfels, Apollonia Nußdorfer and Odilia Königstein. Hanns Werner Altenbas, the conductor of the convention, presented the keys. Wagenmann and Sprenger sat down on the floor in the monastery area and had the prioress sprinkle them with local soil to show that they had actually taken possession; which ended the 600 year old monastic tradition in Lambrecht. Around 1568, the church and monastery were built by Elector Friedrich III. handed over to Reformed religious refugees from the Netherlands who settled there.

The Seelbuch

The medieval lake book of the Dominican convent of St. Lambrecht has been preserved in the Heidelberg University Library (signature: Lehmann estate, no. 345), which is of great value for research into local history. It was published in 1990 in the series of publications in the Speyer Diocesan Archives as Volume 12.

Prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein († 1353) with a model of the Lambrecht monastery church.

The monastery church

It is a single-nave, continuously vaulted building in the style of the so-called Reduction Gothic ; originally it measured 60 m and had twelve yokes . In 1776 three bays were torn off on the west side, so that today's church has only nine bays and is 45 m long. A tower in the style of the time was built on the western part in 1922; originally the monastery church only had one roof turret . Inside, in addition to the Gothic choir paintings (five complete walls in the choir ), the nuns' gallery in the west building is noteworthy, which was also built under the prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein († August 10, 1353). A painted inscription in the choir indicates that Count Heinrich von Fleckenstein († 1305) and his wife Agnes von Saar Werden are also buried in the church; presumably they are the parents of Prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein.

In Deidesheim , Ketschauer Hof , there is the grave slab of Arnold Schliederer von Lachen († 1430), governor of the Electorate of the Palatinate and court chef from the local monastery church .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The deed of foundation in full ( Memento from May 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ A. Stauber: Kloster und Dorf Lambrecht , in: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz , Volume IX, 1880, p. 94 u. 95 (digital scan)
  3. ↑ Gerhard Fouquet : Das Seelbuch des Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Lambrecht , Diocese archives Speyer, 1990, p. 50 u. 148-150
  4. ↑ For Prioress Agnes Sendeln
  5. ↑ To Nuncio Sebastian Pighi
  6. ↑ Source on the processes involved in the abolition of the monastery
  7. ^ Franz Xaver Remling: Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria , p. 155
  8. ↑ To Konrad Dym
  9. ↑ To Johannes Wagenmann
  10. ↑ To Wendelin Sprenger
  11. ^ Franz Xaver Remling: Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria, page 155
  12. ^ On the process of the abolition of St. Lambrecht and the seizure of ownership by the Electoral Palatinate
  13. ↑ Review of the annotated new edition of the Seelbuch, in the portal of the Diocese of Speyer ( Memento from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Source of the count's grave in the monastery church
  15. ↑ Genealogical data on the two buried
  16. ^ Georg Peter Karn, Rolf Mertzenich: Bad Dürkheim district. City of Bad Dürkheim, municipality of Haßloch, municipalities of Deidesheim, Lambrecht, Wachenheim (=  cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany . Volume 13.1 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1995, ISBN 3-88462-119-X , p. 156 ( detail scan ).

Coordinates: 49 ° 22 ′ 14.2 "  N , 8 ° 4 ′ 9.8"  E