Stephanskloster (Heidelberg)
The Stephanskloster at 375.5 m above sea level. NHN high Michelsberg in Heidelberg is a monastery founded there in the 11th century next to the Michaelskloster as a second branch of the Lorsch monastery, of which only remains of the foundations are preserved today. The Michelsberg is in front of the Heiligenberg to the south.
history
St. Stephan was next to the nearby Michaelskloster the second monastery on the Heiligenberg and was founded around the year 1090 by the Benedictine Arnold. He had only recently entered the Benedictine order. He built a hermitage and a chapel on the front summit of the Aberinsberg.
Zundebold, provost in Michaelskloster, took a liking to Arnold's cell and, with the permission of Lorsch Abbey , had monastery buildings added in 1094 . The monastery church was built in the Gothic style in the 12th century. The main donor was a Handschuhsheimer crusader. His widow Hazecha is buried in the western part of the former church, as her grave plate shows. After the Benedictine monastery customs had loosened more and more, the strict Premonstratensian monks from Allerheiligen / Black Forest took over the monastery from the middle of the 13th century. The convent was dissolved in the 16th century after the Reformation and the buildings fell into disrepair. In 1589, the Heidelberg University, as the heiress of the monastery, decided to give it to Heidelberg citizens as a quarry. In 1885/86 the remaining monastery stones were used to build the observation tower on the castle and Neckar valley.
During the time of the monastery, every movement in the Neckar valley could be observed from afar, because the top was bare. Much of the forest had been cut down through construction and heating. At the same time the old cistern (the Heidenloch ) was repaired again. St. Stephan was assigned its own district and was thus economically independent.
Only remains of the foundations and a copy of the grave slab of the donor's widow Hazecha with a Latin inscription are preserved today. The inscription reads: HAZECHA RICFRIDII DEPOSCENS HIC SEPELIRI PREDII QUARTUM SUI CESSIT HUIC DOMUI HIC CONSISTENTES EIUS OBITUM RECOLENTES SINT UT PERPETUO VIVAT ET IPSA DEO VIIII KL DECEMBRIS OBIIT HAZECHA. Translation: Hazecha [wife of] Rickfried desired to be buried here and left the fourth [part of her property] to this house / order, [so that] those who settled here may remember her death and she may have eternal life in God . On the 9th calendars of December [23. Nov., year of death unknown. 12th century] Hazecha died.
East view, foundation walls of the church and the eastern enclosure wing
South-east view, foundation walls of the church and the eastern enclosure wing
100 ° image of the foundation walls from the lower plateau of the Heiligenberg tower
The Heiligenberg tower built from the remains of the monastery in 1885/86
Web links
- Benedictine Propstei St. Stephan on the Heiligenberg in the database of monasteries in Baden-Württemberg of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives
Coordinates: 49 ° 25 ′ 10.6 " N , 8 ° 42 ′ 15.1" E