Pen on the mountain

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The pen on the mountains or St. Mary on the hill in Herford was founded in the 11th century nuns convent before it in the late Middle Ages in a convent was transformed. It remained as such after the Reformation and was abolished in 1810. It was a subsidiary of the Herford Imperial Monastery . The Marienkirche served as the monastery church .

middle Ages

Medieval account of the vision

Herford Abbey has existed since the 8th century. Abbess Godesdiu / Godesta from the Billunger family founded a nunnery on today's Stiftberg near the city in 1011. A founding legend ( Herford Vision ) reported that Mary was commissioned " ad montem visionis " (on the mountain of apparitions) to found a monastery. The abbess equipped the new foundation with properties from her family. A first small church was consecrated in 1017 by Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn .

Prosperity increased through foundations and property transfers. The monastery had about 40 larger and some other smaller courtyards. The so-called Meierhof has been in the immediate vicinity since the Middle Ages. Shortly after it was founded, the church and monastery became the destination of numerous pilgrims . The pilgrims in particular made the monastery wealthy. In 1262 the pastor and the convent fought over the income from the offerings on the altar and the offering box on the tree trunk of the vision.

The proceeds allowed in the 14th century the Gothic construction of the monastery church. A fair developed from the pilgrimage, which also attracted numerous visitors. The fair, called Vision, continued after the Reformation.

In the late Middle Ages, the monastery was converted into a free worldly aristocratic women's monastery. The collegiate ladies no longer lived together in seclusion, instead a number of collegiate curia were created.

Early modern age

The monastery church of St. Maria (around 1904)

The facility remained in place even after the Reformation of the monastery in 1547/1548. Since then, the collegiate church has also served as a parish church for the people living around the monastery. Around 1636 there were twenty houses with 135 inhabitants. In 1747 there were 30 houses and six curiae of the canonesses. The settlement became more and more a district of Herford.

The number of prebends was initially fourteen. There have been twelve posts since 1635. Since then, the canonesses have come from the lower nobility of the region. The establishment was managed by a provost . This and the dean were elected by the community. The sextons were appointed by the abbess of Herford.

The monastery was dependent on Herford monastery in various ways. Since the Reformation, the abbess not only exercised sovereign secular rights, but she also had spiritual jurisdiction over the monastery on the mountain. The abbess had to confirm the statutes of the monastery. It also determined the person of the bailiff and the pastor. The abbess also had a right of co-determination when accepting new canons. They also had part of certain income from the monastery.

Already in 1802 there was a threat of dissolution. The monastery was abolished in 1810 in the course of secularization at the time of the Kingdom of Westphalia . The former collegiate church of St. Mary continues to serve as a parish church.

swell

literature

  • Johannes von Boeselager (among others): In the shadow of the Reichsvogtei. St. Mariae Abbey on the mountain in front of Herford. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , Volume 140, 1990 pp. 49–130
  • Wolfgang Otto: 1000 years of Berg Herford Abbey. Bielefeld 2011.
  • Matthias Wemhoff : The Herford women's monastery. The archaeological results on the history of secular and sacred buildings since the late 8th century (= preservation of monuments and research in Westphalia , Volume 24). 3 volumes. Habelt, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7749-2611-5 .
  • Found on the mountain . In: Topographia Westphaliae

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 58.3 "  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 12"  E