Neuendorf Monastery (monastery)

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View from the south

The Neuendorf monastery was the only settlement of the Cistercians in the Altmark . It is located in the town of the same name in the north of Saxony-Anhalt . The monastery church of St. Mary, Benedict and Bernhard was built during the brick Gothic period . She now serves as parish church of the Evangelical-Lutheran s parish Kloster Neuendorf in Kirchenkreis Salzwedel of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany . Concerts are occasionally held.

Monastery history

Interior below the nuns gallery with pulpit and altar

The monastery was founded in 1228 and 1232 as a monastery Niendorp in a Schenkungs certificate of John I , Margrave of Brandenburg first mentioned. Thanks to numerous other donations from the landed aristocracy, the monastery gained great influence. Around 1500 it had 33 localities and elevations in 17 others. The "Klosterheide" in the north of the Colbitz-Letzlinger Heide also belonged to him. Around 60 nuns from the most respected families of the Altmark lived in Neuendorf Monastery. Her tasks included nursing the sick and the poor, proselytizing the Elbe Slavs , farming and growing herbs. In 1289, the Stift zum Heiligengrabe monastery was founded in Heiligengrabe in Prignitz . In the 14th and 15th centuries the monastery church became the burial place of the noble von Alvensleben family . The oldest tombstones in the church date from this period.

In the first half of the 15th century, the monastery began to decline, leading to the partial decline of the houses. In 1450 a richly furnished outside portal was built in the south wall, previously the church was only accessible from the monastery. The facility was repaired in the 1480s under the Abbess Anna von der Schulenburg . The Reformation met with resistance from the nuns, who did not allow the monastery to be converted into a Protestant women's monastery until 1579 . The church had already become a Protestant parish church in 1555. The monastery property had to be sold.

The roof turret from the time it was built was replaced by a baroque tower in 1749 . In 1810 the former monastery was secularized . Parts of the monastery buildings were then used as a schnapps distillery, and the monastery property was sold in 1834.

History of architecture and art

Monastery church

Three window group in the choir , stained glass around 1500

The church is a single hall building from brick . The tower dates from the Baroque and has a tail hood .

The eastern facade is characterized by a three-window group and a pointed arch fries coined. The north and south sides have two-lane pointed arch windows in the east, and two rows of windows lying one above the other in the west, because of the nun's gallery there , of which the two lower east windows are walled up.

The interior ends with a wooden flat ceiling sloping on the long sides . With a length of 20 meters, the nun's gallery comprises around three fifths of the interior. Under the nun's gallery there are two rows of five cross vaults , which are supported in the middle by pillars. It dates from the second half of the 15th century and was reduced in size by a yoke in 1900 and clad on the front with diamond tracery. At the same time, one window was bricked up.

The furnishings include a Romanesque baptismal font, another baptismal font, a baroque pulpit in the middle behind the altar and the organ built by Adolf Reubke in 1869 , which was acquired in 1988 with the prospectus from the secluded Nicolaikirche in Oebisfelde and stands in the middle of the nuns' gallery.

The church is known for its eight medieval stained glass windows . They were created in the 14th and 15th centuries and are located in the choir room . The windows show scenes from the life of Jesus; the oldest window is from the year 1360. Among other things, the pictures had the function of a poor Bible . In the 19th century, some more stained glass were given to the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais , where they were destroyed in the war in 1945.

The church contains several medieval tombstones that were inscribed by a scratching process. The oldest tombstone dates from 1320. Around 1403 the widow Berta von Alvensleben donated a silver, gilded communion chalice , which is still available today.

Enclosure and farm building

Cloister at the former refectory
Monastery courtyard with east wing

Which also built from brick on a rocky stone base, rectangular, approximately 35 meters x 50 meters measured retreat is located west of the church and was connected to it by a vaulted hall. The south wing was converted into a rectory in the 19th century . It had served as a refectory and dormitory . A cloister with seven bays has been preserved on the north side of the south wing, which opens onto the monastery courtyard . The east wing was used as a school building from 1862. The west wing was demolished, the north wing has been preserved as a ruin.

South of the church is the former malt and brewery, which has the renaissance vault of the previous building, but was not built until 1860. The neighboring building from 1561 was called "Hundeloch" and served as a prison for the office, a granary and for drying the monastery cheese.

literature

alphabetically ascending
  • Monika Böning (author), Ulrich Hinz (regest part): The medieval stained glass in the former Cistercian church of Neuendorf Monastery . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004377-7 .
  • Lieselott Enders : The Altmark. History of a Kurmark landscape in the early modern period (end of the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century) (= Klaus Neitmann [Hrsg.]: Publications of the Brandenburg State Main Archives . Volume 56). Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8305-1504-3 .
  • Heiderose Engelhard, Jürgen Weinert: Neuendorf monastery . Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2003, without ISBN.
  • Otto Korn : Contributions to the history of the Cistercian nunnery Neuendorf in the Altmark. External story. Development of the monastic manor . In: Saxony and Anhalt. Volume 5 . 1929, DNB 570801141 , pp. 104-219.
  • Cornelia Oefelein: Neuendorf. Cistercian women . In: Heinz-Dieter Heimann , Klaus Neitmann, Winfried Schich and others (eds.): Brandenburgisches Klosterbuch. Handbook of the monasteries, pens and commander by the mid-16th century. Volume II (= Klaus Neitmann on behalf of the Brandenburg Historical Commission and in connection with the Brandenburg State Main Archive [Hrsg.]: Brandenburg Historical Studies . Volume 14). 2 volumes, Be.Bra Wissenschaft Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-937233-26-0 , pp. 903-914.

Web links

Commons : Neuendorf Monastery  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 4.
  2. ^ Lieselott Enders: The Altmark . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8305-1504-3 , I. Church, clergy and religious communities. 4. Religious communities and activities. a) Abbey and monasteries in the Middle Ages, pp. 1208–1211.
  3. ^ A b Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 6.
  4. ^ A b Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 8.
  5. Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 7.
  6. Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 10.
  7. Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 11.
  8. The von Alvensleben in Neuendorf Monastery , accessed on August 24, 2015
  9. Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 12.
  10. ^ A b Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 13.
  11. Jürgen Weinert, Heiderose Engelhard: Neuendorf Monastery. Issue 611/3. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, without ISBN, p. 14.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '32.6 "  N , 11 ° 27' 32.7"  E