Kreuzherrenkloster Memmingen

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Church building with the striking tower from the Hallhof
Church tower seen from the market square
Detail of the church ceiling, richly decorated with Wessobrunn stucco
Church ceiling with frescoes

The Kreuzherrenkloster Memmingen is a former monastery of the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit in Memmingen in Bavaria in the diocese of Augsburg .

history

The beginnings of the monastery consecrated to the Holy Spirit go back to the 13th century. Forgeries point to the year 1010, which was before the city of Memmingen was founded in 1160. It was probably donated in 1210 by the Hohenstaufen provincial bailiff in Upper Swabia , Count Heinrich von Neuffen-Weißenhorn, and his wife Hedwig. They set up a hospital on the eastern edge of the city center in front of the Kalchtor , furnished it with real estate and handed it over to the Hospital Order of the Canons of the Holy Spirit in Rome, whose main focus was the care of the sick and homeless and the reception of pregnant women and foundlings. After a devastating fire in 1223, the monastery and the hospital had to be rebuilt, in this context it is mentioned for the first time in a city document.

The city council has been involved in the administration of the hospital since 1353, and in 1365 the hospital complex was divided into a lower and an upper hospital. The lower hospital , which is now directly administered by the imperial city , included the poor parlor on the ground floor and several adjoining rooms, while the upper hospital that remained with the order also included the church of St. Peter and Paul and the upper floors of the monastery and convent building. The imperial city charities were concentrated in the urban poor parlor. Together with the Antoniterkloster , the Kreuzherren shaped the intellectual and cultural life of the imperial city.

Large parts of the complex were again destroyed in a fire in 1477. The hospital church was rebuilt as a Gothic hall church between 1480 and 1484, the entire complex was given the shape of a three-wing complex open to the Hallhof to the south. In 1484 a tower was built to the south of the church building. In the years 1709–1711 the church was redesigned in baroque style and equipped with Wessobrunner stucco by Matthias Stiller together with his son Michael Stiller (plasterer) . The ceiling paintings are by Johann Friedrich Sichelbein .

Shortly after the mediatization of the free imperial city and the transition to the Electorate of Bavaria in 1802, the monastery was also secularized . All expendable and movable goods of the monastery were auctioned in 1803, the last canons left the house in 1804. The church was used as a parish church until 1806, after which it served as a timber warehouse. Until 1816, the poor room served as accommodation for benefactors , and Bavarian officials were housed in the monastery rooms. Although the church and the steeple were only supposed to be demolished in favor of a new toll and customs building, this was abandoned from 1819 onwards, as other areas had become free and there was no longer any need for a new building. From 1820 onwards, the poor living room served as a storage room. The church was converted into a goods hall, a large gateway was broken into the north and south side walls, and the orchestra and pulpit were demolished. The stucco in the lower area was knocked off and the crypt and cellar rooms were demolished in order to obtain a level access. An intermediate floor was drawn in in the nave itself and a wooden crane was installed. To the north, the entire complex was given a classical facade.

When the empire was founded, the building was increasingly without function as a hall and customs office, which is why the city council applied in 1920 to exhibit works by Memmingen painters in the former sacristy. After a water pipe burst, it was discussed in 1932 to move the city's collection of paintings to the unused nave, but this solution was discarded for cost reasons and the upper part of the nave was only used as an exhibition and concert hall from 1947. The ground floor was combined with the room for the poor and was used from 1960 as a hospital arch as an open pedestrian path. Various municipal institutions were housed in the convent building: the singing and music school, the city youth council and the psycho-social counseling center.

The complex, which has been neglected overall, was extensively renovated and restored from 1998 to 2003 in accordance with historical monuments. Among other things, the intermediate floor in the nave was removed and the hospital's poor parlor was restored. Today the church is used again as an exhibition and event space, the poor parlor as a café.

building

Steeple

The complex consisted of a hospital with commercial annexes, as well as a church and a convent building to the east. The complex burned down several times, and as part of the reconstruction work it was repeatedly expanded and changed.

Poor room

The oldest part still preserved is the poor living room. Its two-aisled, four- bay hall, vaulted by a ribbed vault, dates from the early 15th century. From 1675 to 1680, hospital master Elias Bruggberger initiated extensive construction work, with the needy room being extended by additional floors, in which two large halls were housed. The room on the second floor was given a wooden coffered ceiling in 1691 , most of which is still preserved today.

Monastery church

In 1477 the monastery church of St. Peter and Paul was destroyed in a fire and was rebuilt in the following years as a two-nave and four-bay late Gothic hall church. As is usual in many hospitals, it forms an extension of the room in need. Under hospital master Sigismund Teufel it was baroque from 1709, the ceiling vaults were probably lined with Wessobrunner stucco by Matthias Stiller . In each yoke there are ceiling paintings, which presumably come from the Memmingen painter Johann Friedrich Sichelbein. The approximately 14 meter high vault is supported by three stucco marble columns.

Hospital master

Until 1253

  • Stephen, 1010-1012
  • Perchtrandus, 1012-1034
  • Thomas Gallicus, 1034-1041
  • Martinus Anglicus, 1041-1058
  • Hiltwin, 1058-1086
  • Ortwin, 1086-1097
  • Walter, 1097-1146
  • Fr. Diebold von Boos , 1146–1200
  • Fr. Adrian of vineyards , 1200-1238
  • 1235–1253 15 unknown hospital masters

From 1253

literature

Web links

Commons : Kreuzherrenkloster Memmingen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kreuzherrnsaal Memmingen , leaflet, Memmingen, approx. 2014.

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 10 ″  N , 10 ° 10 ′ 58 ″  E