Beselich monastery ruins
The monastery of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the Premonstratensian Choir Women in Beselich was founded by the Arnstein Abbey around 1170 on the Beselicher head. Today's monastery ruins are located in the Hessian community of Beselich in the Limburg-Weilburg district in the area of the current diocese of Limburg .
Geographical location
The Beselicher Kopf , on which the Beselich monastery ruins are located, is at 296 m the highest point in the municipality of Beselich on the edge of the Limburg basin . It is located in the center of this community, which owes its name to when it was founded in 1974 through the merger of four formerly independent communities. The monastery ruins can be reached via the two streets between the Beselich districts of Obertiefenbach and Schupbach as well as Niedertiefenbach and Schupbach. In addition to the heritage-protected Beselich monastery ruins with the former monastery courtyard used for agriculture, the pilgrimage chapel “Maria Hilf” has been in the immediate vicinity since 1767 . The seven chapels of the Seven Sorrows of Mary on the prayer path in the forest from Obertiefenbach to Beselich belong to the ensemble of this pilgrimage chapel after their completion in 1877 .
history
founding
The "Monastery of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the Premonstratensian Choir Women in Beselich" was built by the Arnstein Monastery around 1170 on the Beselicher head. As was common with women's monasteries at the time, the Beselich monastery was subordinate to the abbot of the mother monastery. The impetus for the foundation was given by Gottfried von Beselich , who was a priest at the nearby St. Lubentiusstift in Dietkirchen . He had a church consecrated to St. Aegidius built on the Beselicher head , endowed it with a tithe-free court and bequeathed it to the Arnstein monastery for the foundation of the monastery.
In 1163, Archbishop Hillin von Trier confirmed the donation in a document, which dates back to the time of King Konrad III. and Pope Innocent II (i.e. between 1138 and 1143). The filiation principle applied meant that a headmistress, known as the master, could be elected in the Beselich monastery, but that she had to ask the respective Abbot von Arnstein for advice and obtain approval for important decisions. In the Beselich monastery itself, the abbot was represented by a prior who held the services for the nuns and assisted the master in making decisions. In the document from 1163 it was determined that the abbot of Arnstein should be the sole ruler of Beselich.
Almost exclusively aristocratic women are likely to have entered the Beselich monastery. In 1298 the abbot von Arnstein was forced to charge an admission fee of 30 marks to prevent the monastery from being overcrowded.
The Beselich monastery was considered particularly rich. The fortune grew steadily through the dowries of the aristocratic sisters, on the other hand through memories of the soul: rich farmers and aristocrats from the near and far area bequeathed fields or even entire farms to the monastery and made it mandatory for the nuns to hold a special service every year on the day of their death her salvation was celebrated. Through these donations, the monastery acquired properties, tithes, entire farms and extensive vineyards in Aumenau an der Lahn in many places in its vicinity .
Decline and dissolution of the monastery
In the middle of the 15th century, the beginning of decay was announced, triggered externally by an attack in which the monastery was reduced to rubble and ashes. According to a protocol that was laid down on August 28, 1487 in the rectory in Lahr in the Westerwald , Agnes Hube von Hattenstein was the only sister to have survived the cruel attack. After considering the conversion into a male monastery, it was decided to rebuild the monastery and to repopulate it with sisters from the Premonstratensian monastery in Gummersbach. These sisters rebuilt the monastery.
In the course of the 16th century, when unsuccessful attempts were made to reform the monastery in line with Protestant doctrine , disputes arose with increasing frequency, which ultimately led to the abolition of the monastery in 1568. The following statement is documented by the nuns: "They wanted to let themselves be torn apart rather than let the priest bring them to a religion other than Catholic." Despite this situation, a fair near the monastery was recorded for the first time in 1545. There are also references to this fair from the 14th century.
After the monastery was abolished by the sovereign, the monastery buildings were initially converted into a regional hospital in 1615 , of which the Beselich courtyard house is still preserved today.
Change of ownership to the Jesuits and decay
After the transfer of ownership from Haus Runkel to Haus Nassau-Hadamar , a sharp dispute arose between the Jesuits and the Premonstratensians over the property on the Beselicher Kopf , but this was finally decided in Rome in favor of the Jesuits. The Archbishop of Trier also tried to assert rights. The decision in favor of the Jesuits depended largely on the influence of the Count and later Prince of Nassau-Hadamar, who then left the Beselich property to the Jesuits residing in Hadamar in 1637. These operated at the instigation of Count Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar, the recatholicization in the Hadamarer Land. The Jesuits did not intend to run Beselich as a monastery again, but only use it as a quarry for the construction of their residence in Hadamar .
Transfer to non-church property
Due to conflicts, especially from the Protestant rule of Runkel, the Jesuits then saw themselves forced in 1656 to sell Beselich again to the house of Nassau-Hadamar. By this time the Jesuits had already removed everything useful (the last bell, doors, roof beams, stones and much more) from Beselich. The Runkel house had already had a larger bell brought to Schupbach, where it hung in the church tower until the First World War .
The Nassau-Hadamar House then converted the monastery into their family estate and then into a hereditary farm. The extensive possessions of the monastery later fell to the Nassau Central Study Fund . The fair at the monastery ended in the course of the 17th century. From the former monastery only remains of the wall from the monastery church and a few documents, which mostly deal with the former monastery goods.
The Franciscan - Eremit Leonhard (real name: Georg Niederstraßen) built a hermitage and chapel on the Beselicher Kopf in 1763 , which in 1767 was named "Maria Hilf" and in honor of the 14 holy helpers, and thus the tradition of the Beselich monastery and the nuns continued.
Headmasters
The following heads ( abbesses ) ran the Beselich monastery:
- Jutta
- Gisela
- Lukardis
- Sophie, died September 11th, year unknown
- Sophie, died October 12, 1290
- Hedwig, 1290-1317
- Sophie, 1317-1329
- Elisabeth von Elkershausen, 1329–1346
- Benigna von Bachheim, 1346–1351
- Elisabeth von Bassenheim, 1351-1380
- Gertrudis von Weilburg, 1380–1402
- Lukardis von Allendorf, 1402–1404
- Alberadis, 1404-1410
- Humility from the Erlen 1410–1421
- Katharina von Schwalbach, 1421–1424
- Agnes Hube von Hohenstein, 1424–1445
- Margarete von Willensdorf, 1445–1465
- Isengart von Walderdorff, 1465–1470
- Gertrudis von Herschbach, 1470–1479
- Kunigunde von Rodheim, 1479–1503
- Anna von Heppenheft, 1503–1528
- Anna von Brambach, 1528–1568
- Administrator Sophie von Runkel, 1568–1577
- Administrator Ida von Wied, 1577–1587
- Humility Reichwein von Montabaur, from 1587
Today's maintenance of the ruin
On January 10, 1985, the "Association for the Preservation of the Ruined Monastery Beselich eV" was founded, which has set itself the task of maintaining the ruins of the monastery. This association has also taken over the sponsorship of the ruined property through a long-term lease. An extensive exhibition in the home parlor Beselich-Obertiefenbach shows the history of the monastery and the activities of this association. The ruins are protected in the event of war under the Hague Convention . In May 2019 the annual general meeting of the association decided to dissolve it.
literature
- Ferdinand Luthmer: The architectural and art monuments of the Lahn area . Keller, Frankfurt a. M. 1907, p. 37 ff .
- Georg Wagner : Beselich monastery and pilgrimage site . Wiesbaden-Dotzheim 1935.
- Georg Wagner: Obertiefenbach in its past . Obertiefenbach community, Wiesbaden-Dotzheim 1954.
- Christof W. Martin: Beselicher Schriften, serial. No. 10, 7th year . 1997, ISSN 0934-036X .
- Christof W. Martin: Beselicher Schriften, serial. No. 11, 8th year . 1999, ISSN 0934-036X .
- Permanent exhibition with extensive documentation on the Beselich monastery in the Obertiefenbacher Heimatstube in the old school parish hall
Web links
- Website of the Association for the Preservation of the Beselich Monastery Ruins
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Hrsg.): Klosterruine Beselich In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
- Beselich monastery ruins on the Rhineland-Palatinate digitization portal dilibri
- Official website of the municipality of Beselich
- Official website of the Pastoral Room Beselich
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : pilgrimage chapel Maria Hilf Beselich . In: 125 years of the parish church of St. Agidius Obertiefenbach . Parish of St. Agidius Obertiefenbach, Beselich 2013.
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : 250 years pilgrimage chapel Maria Hilf Beselich . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 2017 . The district committee of the district of Limburg-Weilburg, Limburg-Weilburg 2016, ISBN 3-927006-54-8 , p. 137-141 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 27 ′ 0.3 ″ N , 8 ° 8 ′ 27.6 ″ E