Quin Friary
The Quin Friary ( Irish Mainistir Chuinche ) is a former Franciscan monastery in Quin in County Clare in the west of the Republic of Ireland . The monastery is popularly referred to as "Quin Abbey", but this is misleading as it was never an abbey .
The monastery was built on the ruins of a Norman castle. This was built around 1280 by the nobleman Thomas de Clare (1244–1287), Lord of Thomond , as a square complex with four round corner towers. In 1318 the garrison of the castle killed the Irish chief of the Uí Lideadha ( Anglis. O'Liddy), whereupon Irish of the Uí Caisín clan, under Cúmheadha Mac Conmara (Anglis. Cuvea MacNamara), managed to storm the castle and the walls to partially grind.
Around 1350 a church building had already been erected on the ruins of the castle, but this had to give way almost completely to the new building of a monastery church when the MacNamaras family decided to bring Franciscans to Quin and found a monastery. The exact date of foundation is controversial, but there is a papal bull from 1433 authorizing the foundation. The art historian Harold G. Leask considers an earlier founding date to be improbable for stylistic considerations. The monastery church was built in the southern part of the former castle with a nave , choir , crossing tower and a southern transept; the former courtyard was redesigned into a cloister .
In 1541 the monastery was abolished by Henry VIII who wanted to break the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and seize its property. However, individual Franciscan friars managed to survive in the decaying monastery until the 17th century, living under the poorest conditions.
The ruins of the monastery are now locked, but the key to the gate can be borrowed in the nearby town. In the immediate vicinity to the west of the friary are the ruins of St. Finghin's Church , which was built between 1278 and 1285.
The crossing tower
The courtyard with the cloister
View into the cloister
Ruin of St. Finghin's Church
literature
- Aubrey Gwynn, R. Neville Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses Ireland. Longman, London 1970, ISBN 0-582-11229-X .
- Peter Harbison: Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland . 3. Edition. Gill & Macmillan Publ., Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-3239-0 , pp. 23, 47, 48.
- Harold G. Leask: Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings. Volume 3: Medieval Gothic. The last phases. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk 1960, OCLC 256182466 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 49 '9.4 " N , 8 ° 51' 46.9" W.