Pilgrimage Church Pfannstiel

The Pfannstiel Church , also called Pfannstiel Monastery , was a pilgrimage church with a small convent about 4.5 km east of Weilburg in the district of Hirschhausen in the Limburg-Weilburg district ( Hesse ). It was located on the Grundbach near the present-day hamlet Pfannenstiel and Kreisstraße 412. Today only small remnants of the wall remain from the former site. Since July 11, 2009, a newly erected St. John's Cross has stood on the site .

history

founding

Around the middle of the 15th century a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary is said to have been found on or in a tree in the forest near the “Panstyl”, where the path from Hirschhausen to Weilburg crossed the stream , whereupon a “Society and Brotherhood of the Rosary” formed Our Lady of Panstiel ”, who raised the funds through gifts and bequests to build a small church. The church "Our Lady and St. John" was first mentioned in 1461 and was a popular place of pilgrimage for residents of the near and far. The brotherhood book contains the names of almost 200 people, including some from Frankfurt. The little convent was under a prior . From 1471 or 1472 the Johanniter-Kommende Nieder-Weisel (near Butzbach ) seems to have been in charge of looking after the site.

Johanniter branch

On November 20, 1482, Count Philipp II (1418–1492) of Nassau-Weilburg transferred the church with all accessories and with exemption from all taxes and services to the Commander-in- Chief Gottfried Wigant of the Johanniter-Kommende Wiesenfeld (near Frankenberg (Eder) ) the obligation to celebrate the mass for the Nassau rule every Saturday . However, the count retained extensive supervision and appointed three “factory masters” or “master builders” (“ magister fabricae ”), who were responsible for building supervision, administering the finances of the foundation and ensuring that the church's economy was set up and wine tavern is provided with what is necessary to serve the pilgrims well. Two of the three factory masters were appointed by the count, the third was the local representative of the order, the prior. The previous prior, Hermann Katzenfurt (also Hermann von Katzenfurt) became a friar and stayed with a second clergyman in the newly created religious house. Katzenfurt was prior from 1479 to 1496. His successor until 1518 was Matern Spitzfaden, previously vicar of the Walpurgis monastery in Weilburg . The sovereign had the greatest influence in filling the position of prior or governor, while the appointment of the second clergyman was a matter for the order alone. The Komtur von Wiesenfeld had to make an annual visit .

In order to promote the further expansion of the pilgrimage site, two thirds of the income was allocated to the church for 10 years, the third third went to the Order of St. John. The reputation of the miracles that happened in the Pfannstiel continued to grow, and with it the number of pilgrims and the income from donations, endowments , trade and services. In addition to the pilgrimage church of Our Lady and St. Johann im Pfannstiel, the order now also maintained a house for the prior and the second friar, various farm buildings as well as an inn and accommodation for the pilgrims on the Way of St. James between the Altenberg monastery and Koblenz . The church was enlarged, and the choir and the high altar were on 1 August 1488 John of Eindhoven, the auxiliary bishop of Trier , consecrated .

In the following year the church burned down to the ground. The bells were also destroyed, but the image of the Virgin Mary remained undamaged. With the support of Count Philip II and his daughter-in-law, the already widowed Elisabeth of Hesse (1453–1489), an even larger three-aisled new building with five altars was built, although the work was not fully completed until 1517. The construction financing came partly from a letter of indulgence obtained from Pope Innocent VIII , partly from the growing income from real estate, the offering and interest from the granting of loans. After completion of all construction work, the complex, enclosed by a wall, consisted of the church with the churchyard, the residential building of the priests (the so-called “stone house”), accommodation and catering facilities for the pilgrims, as well as stables and barns.

23 years earlier, at the time of the general visitation of all branches of the Order ordered by Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson in 1494 , the situation was even more difficult. The two chaplains Hermannus Katzenfort and Petrus Meyer officiated at the church and had to read at least one mass every day. A cook was the only servant. The income of the branch was very modest, sufficient to pay, accommodate and feed the two friars and their cook and to generate a small surplus. The statement of accounts prepared for the visitation contained no information about the appearance and condition of the church, nor any inventory, since the “ magistri fabricae ” were responsible for the liturgical equipment and the supply of wax and oil .

“ Membrum ” from Wiesenfeld or Wildungen

The original transfer of ownership was to the Johanniter-Kommende Wiesenfeld, and in the literature Pfannstiel is usually referred to as the "membrum" (link, branch) of Wiesenfeld. The accountability report prepared for the general visit in 1494/95 states, however, that Pfannstiel is subordinate to the Coming Wildungen and that the entire administration of the branch is monitored from there. The explanation lies in the fact that the two comers were united in 1478 in the hands of Commander Johannes Roesener, who probably resided in Wildungen and carried out the visitations in Pfannstiel from there.

The End

In 1526, Count Philip III. von Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Reformation into his county. Initially, this only led to the suspension of payments to the Komtur von Wiesenfeld or Wildungen, to the creation of an inventory of the movable church property and to the establishment of an annual tax of 15 guilders. The church remained, but no more Catholic services were held, so that the pilgrimage site became increasingly orphaned. In 1531 the vestments and instruments were withdrawn. After Philip III. had joined the Schmalkaldic League on August 26, 1537 , the Reformation in Nassau-Weilburg was accelerated, and in 1538 he ordered the abolition of the Pfannstiel Convent. The land was confiscated. The remaining church inventory of gold, silver and all the jewels and ornaments were sold and the proceeds were used for the construction of the new town church in Weilburg, which began in 1538.

The chaplain Andreas, who looked after the church together with the last prior Peter von Trarbach (notarized in 1525), was allowed to look after the evangelical parish established in Pfannstiel until his death in 1543. Pastor Bernhard Rein followed him. The outbuildings gradually fell into disrepair and their building materials were removed by residents of the area and used for other purposes. Finally, Count Philip III. around 1550 the demolition of the church.

Leftovers

In 1959 some remains of the foundation were uncovered, but in the course of the following decades they were again overgrown by bushes and trees. In 2007, the Weilburg history association freed the few remaining remains of the wall from vegetation and put up an information board at the former site of the pilgrimage church with an outline of its history. On July 11, 2009, a wooden St. John's Cross was placed at the presumed location of the former main altar.

Notes and individual references

↑ The narrow, elongated meadow valley, through which a small stream flows, south of Drommershausen and west of Hirschhausen is referred to as "Im Pfannstiel" in 1364; older names were Panstel, Panstyll, Panstille and Pansel. The field name perhaps refers to the shape of the terrain, which is reminiscent of the shape of a pan with the long valley as a handle.
↑ His daughter-in-law Elisabeth (1453–1489), daughter of Landgrave Ludwig I (1402–1458) of Hesse , probably played a role.

Web links

literature

Wolf-Heino Struck (Ed.): The Johanniterhaus Pfannstiel and the monasteries Seligenstatt and Walsdorf. Regesten 1156-1634. Sources on the history of the monasteries and monasteries in the area of the middle Lahn up to the end of the Middle Ages, Volume 4. (Publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau, Volume 12) Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wiesbaden, 1962, ISBN 3-922244-18-1
Ortwin Keiner: The story of the Pfannstiel monastery . In: Weilburger Blätter , Bürgerinitiative Alt-Weilburg e. V., Weilburg, Issue 113 (Oct./Dec. 1996), p. 914, and Issue 114 (Jan./March 1997), p. 922
Ortwin Keiner: Miraculous image of Mary lies in a tree . In: Heimat an Lahn und Dill , supplement to the Weilburger Tageblatt , September 9, 2007, p. 14
K. Heymann: The Church of Our Lady of the Pfannstiel , on: Floor antiquities in Nassau, Nassauische Heimatblätter . In: Communications of the Association for Nassau Antiquities and Historical Research , 50th year, issue 1, Wiesbaden, 1960, pp. 33–37
FA Schmidt: Panstiel, a brotherhood of Mary . In: Land and people in the Oberlahnkreis , supplement to the Weilburger Tageblatt , 1939, p. 22

50.4908 8.31538Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 27 ″ N , 8 ° 18 ′ 55 ″ E

[1] The narrow, elongated meadow valley, through which a small stream flows, south of Drommershausen and west of Hirschhausen is referred to as "Im Pfannstiel" in 1364; older names were Panstel, Panstyll, Panstille and Pansel. The field name perhaps refers to the shape of the terrain, which is reminiscent of the shape of a pan with the long valley as a handle.

[2] His daughter-in-law Elisabeth (1453–1489), daughter of Landgrave Ludwig I (1402–1458) of Hesse , probably played a role.