Visitation Monastery (Freiburg)
| Monastery of the Visitation Monastery Visitation |
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|---|---|---|
 The monastery buildings and gardens on Murtengasse |
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| Data | ||
| place | Friborg | |
| builder | Jean-François Reyff | |
| Construction year | 1653 to 1656 | |
| Coordinates | 578 655 / 184177 | |
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The Visitation Monastery is a women's convent of the Salesians in Freiburg in Üechtland .
history
Early modern age
On June 6, 1610, Trinity Sunday, the first monastery of the Visitation Sisters was founded in Annecy , France . Francis de Sales at the time was bishop . The name Order of the Visitation of Mary is based on the visit of Mary, pregnant with Jesus Christ , to her cousin Elisabeth ( Mariä Visitation ), described in the Gospel of Luke . The first sisters were Johanna Franziska von Chantalar, Charlotte de Bréchard, Jacqueline Favre and Jacqueline Coste. The Visitation Sisters should go to the homes of the poor, sick, and needy to help them.
1635 Seven Sisters fled before the Thirty Years' War from Besançon to Friborg. In 1651 the community received permission from the Freiburg government to settle in the canton and to found a monastery. From 1653 to 1656 the Church of the Visitation was built on Murtengasse under the architect Jean-François Reyff . The stepdaughter Catherine Elisabeth Ratzé reportedly wanted to join the order, but the family was not rich enough. Thanks to his commitment to building the church, Reyff is said to have enabled the stepdaughter to enter the monastery.
During the construction of their church, the sisters helped by the wheel came to the sandstones of the Saane pull up, stones dragged to the site or working on the vault. They also lent a hand in the restoration of the church in the 1970s and, among other things, renewed the ceiling painting in the side choir under supervision.
In 1798 the monastery accepted numerous aristocrats who opposed revolutionary ideas. The authorities of the Helvetic Republic confiscated the monastery property and placed it under state administration. Until the boarding school was finally closed in 1922, the Visitants devoted themselves to bringing up young girls.
Todays use
The library of the monastery of the Visitation has an important cultural and historical value, also for the history of the city and the canton of Friborg. The holdings include works from the 17th to 19th centuries from the fields of theology, religious history and Salesian spirituality.
In 2011 the sisters decided to hand over their library to the canton of Friborg. The collection of around 6,000 works is kept, inventoried and made accessible to the public by the Cantonal and University Library (KUB) .
The pierced Heart of Jesus is the coat of arms of the order. In 2013, 18 nuns lived in the monastery of the Visitation in Freiburg. The only other monastery of the Visitands in Switzerland is located in Solothurn .
Web links
- www.visitation-fribourg.ch
- Interview with Sister Daniela about the monastery of the Visitation , published in: Thaddäusbote , No. 5/6, May / June 2010, 74th year
Individual evidence
- ↑ When the nuns were dragging stones , Freiburger Nachrichten on September 9, 2013
- ↑ The monastery of the Visitation leaves its library to the canton of Friborg ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Freiburg State Archives, accessed on April 29, 2017
