Leper House (Bad Wurzach)
The Leprosenhaus is an infirmary for lepers, first mentioned in a document in 1355, and today it is a monument to social and medical history in the spa town of Bad Wurzach in Upper Swabia . The leprosy chapel, which was used as a place of worship by the Protestant parish from 1871 to 1959 , is attached to the leper house . It is the birthplace of the painter Sepp Mahler . Some of the rooms are now the Sepp Mahler Museum in the Leprosenhaus .
The ensemble with herb garden is located on the western outskirts of the city at the foot of the Leprosenberg in the immediate vicinity of the Saint-Gobain Oberland and the Wurzacher Ried .
history
The emerging local and long-distance trade in the Middle Ages ensured mobility among the population. This contributed to the spread of leprosy , syphilis and infectious diseases of all kinds. However, the growing wealth of the urban bourgeoisie resulting from trade made it possible for so-called leprosories to emerge in front of the city walls through foundations . A total of 191 leper houses can be found in what is today Baden and Württemberg. Many of the houses have their own chapel and cemetery. The place Wurzach was first mentioned in a document on June 13, 1273 as "Oppidum Wurzun". On May 27, 1333, Emperor Louis the Bavarian Hans Steward of Waldburg for "City Wurzun" the Memminger city charter . With this town charter, Wurzach received the law of lower jurisdiction , market law and the right and duty of walling. The leper house outside the walls was first mentioned in a document in 1355.
On Good Friday of the year 1525, April 14th, the battle of the Leprosenberg in Wurzach took place as part of the Peasants' War . In this battle, 7,000 farmers, led by Pfaff Florian von Aichstetten, met the approximately 7,000-strong army of the Swabian Confederation , led by Georg III. Truchsess from Waldburg-Zeil , also called "Bauernjörg". Between 1575 and 1580, 42 women were burned as witches on the Leprosenberg . In 1637, as a result of the Thirty Years War and epidemics, only 19 citizens lived in Wurzach.
In 1675 the rule of Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach was established. In 1696 the leper house was demolished and rebuilt with around 15 rooms. During the time of the Catholic Counter Reformation , the chapel was redesigned in baroque style in 1720. In 1782 the leper house was closed and used as accommodation for peat cutters in the Wurzach reed . The last leper died in 1830.
In the years 1982 to 1987 the house was renovated by the district and the city for 1.7 million DM . In 2010 a partial exhibition of the district art exhibition of the district of Ravensburg took place in the rooms of the Leprosenhaus .
Monument to the Austrian warriors
After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, the secular Waldburg-Wurzach territory came under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Württemberg and assigned to the Oberamt Leutkirch . Between 1813 and 1814, a total of 35,301 soldiers and 9724 horses were fed during the Wars of Liberation in Wurzach. The leprosy house was converted into a hospital for a total of 4,003 of the wounded soldiers of the passing army. The individual regiments were:
- Esterházy
- Emperor Cuirassiers
- Seekler Hussars
- Wenceslaus Colloredo
- Archduke Reiner
- Kaunitz ( Austerlitz )
- Baron Zach
Prince Leopold von Waldburg-Wurzach had the monument erected in 1861. Sixteen soldiers died while staying at the Leper House, and the memorial is intended to commemorate them. In the eastern area of today's herb garden was the leper cemetery.
In 1992 an Arma-Christi cross was erected above the garden on the Leprosenberg . It is intended to commemorate the buried suicides , burned witches and the peasants who perished in the peasant war.
literature
- Dehio : Baden-Württemberg II. The administrative districts of Freiburg and Tübingen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1997
- Otto Frisch: The Leper House in Bad Wurzach. Publisher: Bad Wurzach City Archives. Texts and pictures compiled by Otto Frisch, 3rd edition, Bad Wurzach: Stadtarchiv 2000 (Publications of the Stadtarchiv Bad Wurzach, No. 3)
- Eckart Roloff and Karin Henke-Wendt: crutches, rattles and a painter named Mahler. (Das Leprosenhaus Bad Wurzach) In: Visit your doctor or pharmacist. A tour through Germany's museums for medicine and pharmacy. Volume 2, Southern Germany. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, pp. 30–32, ISBN 978-3-7776-2511-9
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 54 '22.8 " N , 9 ° 53' 1.6" E