Mariacron Monastery

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Mariacron monastery with inscription

Mariacron was a monastery and noble women's monastery near the town of Oppenheim am Rhein between Worms and Mainz .

Monastery history

According to tradition, the monastery was built and founded in 814 under the reign of Emperor Ludwig the Pious . The first residents were women of the Benedictine order . The aristocratic women's monastery was outside the city walls in front of the Seilertor under the quarries on the road to Mainz (today's address Mainzerstraße 162).

In 1265, the Archbishop of Mainz, Werner von Eppstein , entrusted the Cistercian Order of Eberbach Abbey with the care for the monastery (subsidiary foundation). The name Mariacron appears for the first time in 1280.

There is evidence that the women's foundation housed the first monastery school in Oppenheim and acted as an educational institution for the daughters of the noble Burgmannen . The abbesses of Mariacron were highly respected and had extensive holdings. This emerges from documents on donations and transfers of ownership, decisions by King Ruprecht , Count Palatine Friedrich I and Philipp from Heidelberg as well as archbishop transfers of benefices . Margarethe Hilchen von Lorch , Abbess from approx. 1497 to 1518, donated a clan carpet to the monastery , which is now kept in the Cathedral and Diocesan Museum (Mainz) .

The monastery was entitled to the patronage right of the early mess in Nackenheim, the abbess also had the right to propose the priest in the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Oppenheim. The church was dedicated to St. Anne . It had several altars founded by the neighboring nobility and assigned patronage rights (St. George, St. Katharina, Barbara and Dorothea, St. Johannes, Altar of the Ten Thousand Martyrs ).

reformation

In the middle of the 16th century during the Reformation, monastic life came to an end. As abbess, Agnes von Dienheim and her convent opposed the Reformation wishes of Elector Friedrich III. , but could not stop the abolition of the monastery and the temporary conversion into a secular noble women's monastery (1565). After the death of the last abbess Agnes von Dienheim (1571) and the administrator Margarethe Knebelin von Katzenelnbogen (1585), the Heidelberg spiritual property administration (conductor Melchior Meyel) was entrusted with the management of the former monastery.

Wars and Destruction

In the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the building was damaged in 1631 when Oppenheim was taken by the troops of Gustav Adolf of Sweden . In 1636, Emperor Ferdinand II handed the former monastery over to the Mainz Jesuits .

At the end of the Palatinate War of Succession in 1689, the troops of Louis XIV under General Mélac set the city of Oppenheim on fire as planned. The Mariacron monastery also went up in flames.

Monastery distillery

Nobody was interested in the reconstruction. In 1782 an inn was set up in the monastery. In 1792 the remains came into private ownership. Some of the buildings were demolished in the 19th century, and only a few testimonies of the earlier system have survived. The remaining rooms served at times as accommodation for quarry workers and as office space.

In 1894, the Mariacron distillery was built on the site of the former women's monastery . In 1961 the Eckes company took over the distillery and made the former monastery name Mariacron world famous through the brandy . Rationalization pressures shifted production away from Oppenheim in the 80s.

Remnants of retaining and separating walls from the southwest
Remnants of retaining and separating wall on the south side

today

Today on site we remember the former monastery:

  • An old gable wall (remains of a building)
  • An inscription board with a short story on the street-side wall.
  • A small bell that used to belong to Mariacron Monastery is now in the neighboring village of Nierstein on the roof of the Catholic rectory next to the Kilian's Church. It bears the inscription "Christof Neidhardt in Augsperg (Augsburg) gos mich anno 1645" .

In 2007, an investor acquired the Eckes site and converted it into new residential / commercial use, whereby the memory of the monastery and the distillery should not be erased. From the residential building and the 8-storey former barrel warehouse, apartments and flats of the upper class were created. A vinotheque is planned in the front part of the Brennhalle and a physiotherapeutic practice with a sauna area in the rear.

literature

  • Martin Held, Walter Nohl: City Guide Oppenheim am Rhein , Held-Nohl-Gabriel (2002), p. 36
  • Wolfgang Reifenberg: Frauenkloster Mariacron , published in "Oppenheim, history of an old imperial city", (on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city elevation), Oppenheim 1975, pages 299-302, publisher: Hans Licht (Foundation Dr. Martin Held).
  • Julian Hanschke: Oppenheim am Rhein in historical views . 2nd Edition. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-8053-3607-9 (p. 299: time table for local history).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to the inscription on the building
  2. ↑ Domschatz Mainz: clan carpet ( Memento of 3 August 2008 at the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ AZ article from January 12, 2007: Investor buys old Eckes area ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ AZ article from May 4, 2007: Much green and children's laughter ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 49 ° 51 '32.4 "  N , 8 ° 21' 18.8"  E