St. Jacobi Monastery (Osterode)

Former monastery and castle church of St. Jacobi; a remnant of the east wing of the complex between the nave and the choir

Osterode Castle (former St. Jacobi Monastery) around 1650; on the right the south wing, which is still preserved today, on the left behind the (no longer existing) west wing, the St. Jacobi Castle Church is hidden; the octagonal tower with a baroque dome is no longer there; the massive, rectangular castle tower in front of it is now the church tower.

The St. Jacobi Monastery was a Cistercian abbey in Osterode am Harz .

history

At the site of the later monastery, probably at the city's earliest market square, there was a chapel with the patronage of the Apostle James the Elder as early as the 12th century . Otto IV granted it protection in 1217 and transferred it to a local brotherhood.

In 1233 a women's convent was recorded for the first time. A calender supported the foundation. Ambrosius became the first provost of the Cistercian women. In 1244 it received a tithe from Gittelde . In the 14th century, John II. Hake bequeathed the monastery a pension of one mark. In 1466 Gertrud from Derneburg became abbess, and Albrecht II (Braunschweig-Grubenhagen) had the buildings, which had meanwhile fallen into disrepair. The last provost was Conrad Bösterhusen.

The abbey was closed in the middle of the 16th century. Duke Ernst III left the convent building . convert to Osterode Castle . This later became the office building of the Osterode office. The west and east wings of the roughly square complex were demolished in the 1890s. The district court of Osterode am Harz is located in the preserved south wing .

The north wing of the complex was formed by the former monastery church, today the St. Jacobi Castle Church , which was given its present form around 1750. From the interior, the altar - early baroque with Gothic figures -, the pulpit, the choir stalls and the Hartzing epitaph are remarkable. The organ goes back to Johann Andreas Engelhardt .

swell

• Gerd Ahlers: Female Cistercianism in the Middle Ages and its monasteries in Lower Saxony, 2002, p. 216
• Franz Winter: Die Cistercienser des northeastern Germany Volume 1, 1868, p. 35
• Urban Friedrich Christoph Manecke: Electoral and Princely Braunschweig-Lüneburgsches Staatsrecht, 1859, p. 137
• Braunschweigische advertisements, Volume 3, March 24, 1747: Documents from the Closter St. Jacobi in Osterode
• Arend Mindermann: "The most famous doctor in the world", 2001, p. 20

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Information from the Osterode music community ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ ^{a b} osterode-harz.city-map.de
3. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Figure

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 26.8 "  N , 10 ° 15 ′ 16.3"  E