St. Jakob Monastery (Creuzburg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The St. Jakob monastery of the Augustinian choir women was located in Creuzburg ( Thuringia ).

history

The monastery was founded around 1172/1173 by Landgrave Ludwig II. In 1170 he acquired the Allod Creuzburg in exchange for Hessian goods and founded the new monastery as a replacement for the dissolved Benedictine monastery of St. Peter . According to legend, St. Peter's Monastery was founded by Boniface . It was dissolved after Landgrave Ludwig II had a castle built on the mountain . All goods, rights and interests of St. Peter's Monastery are said to have been lent to the new St. Jacob's Monastery.

The St. Jakob monastery was located just outside the city of Creuzburg at the northern city gate ("Klostertor") near the Werra . Many members of aristocratic families in the vicinity lived in it, such as B. that of Nesselröden or that of Hundelshausen . Buildings of the monastery also existed within the city walls, such as the Romanesque ruin still on the eastern edge of the Plan and the street name "Nonnengasse".

The last provost of this monastery, Johann Craemer, wrote a Latin chronicle, which Christian Franz Paullini printed in his work Rerum et antiquitatum germanicarum syntagma .

The monastery was looted during the Peasants' War . The nuns escaped to the castle or hid in the homes of citizens of Creuzburg. In the year 1532 which took place sequestration of the St. James Monastery.

The townspeople took advantage of the seizure of the monastery lands offered by Elector Johann Friedrich I in 1542 for 1000 guilders and an annual interest of 100 guilders. By 1550, the city's magistrate acquired the land and lands of the former monastery in several stages. The monastery estates were used by different families, such as B. Harstall or the Urbich family. Urbich had the former main building of the monastery converted into a residential house in 1667, the medieval window openings were bricked up, a walled-in cross was preserved on the western gable side, the cloister on the north side was demolished, and a Romanesque window opening remained there. The devastating city fire of 1765 also affected the monastery grounds and resulted in the demolition of the outbuildings. A cellar vault in the main building was used by the city as a makeshift prison. The destruction of the Second World War also affected the area of ​​the Klostergarten pub, which was built in the 19th century. Nothing is left of the monastery buildings today. Today the “Klosterstrasse”, the “Klostergarten” restaurant, which is located on the site of the former monastery, and the neighboring “Klosterholz” (a small forest) remind of their existence.

Prioresses and nuns

Toast

  • Ludwig (Liborius) von Nesselröden (penultimate provost)
  • Johann Craemer (1514, last provost)

seal

The monastery seal bears the inscription "sigillum conventus in cruzeburg" and shows Saint James with hat, shell, book and pilgrim's staff , next to it a kneeling figure and the name "St. James ”.

Sources and literature

  • Christian Franz Paullini: Rerum et antiquitatum germanicarum syntagma . Frankfurt 1698, contains: "Chronica Monasterii S. Petri in Monte Crucis ad Werram".
  • Christian Franz Paullini: Time-reducing, edifying pleasure . Frankfurt 1695, Chapter CXXIII, "History of the well-situated and (once) famous Princely Saxon City of Kreutzburg an der Werra".
  • August Trinius : Thuringian hiking book . Volume 4, Waltershausen 1890 - section Kreuzburg pp. 86-88.

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 20.7 ″  N , 10 ° 14 ′ 57.3 ″  E