The Augustinian Monastery of Freiburg is a former Augustinian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

located in the Salzstraße, in the historic center of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. From 1278 to 1783, Augustinian

monks A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

lived in the buildings. It has a preserved Gothic

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

, and has housed the local art museum " Augustinermuseum" since 1923.

History

When first built, the Augustinian monastery belonged to the German

Ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

. After the division of the province in 1299 it became part of a new province, The Rhenic Swabian Province, which included part of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, and the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

up to the city of

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

. In 1781 it changed hands again, when the Austrian government ordered four monasteries in

Further Austria Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (; , formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, includin ...

to form their own province (Further Austrian Province). The government forbade contact with the

Superior General A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of the Augustinians when the former

Prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

was appointed as the Director (1782).He was appointed later on appointed as the

Provincial Superior A provincial superior is an officer of a religious institute (including religious orders) acting under the institute's Superior General. A provincial superior exercises general supervision over all the members of that institute in a territorial ...

(1789). Since the city of Freiburg considered the monasteries of the

mendicant orders Mendicant orders are primarily certain Catholic Church, Catholic religious orders that have vowed for their male members a lifestyle of vow of poverty, poverty, traveling, and living in urban areas for purposes of preacher, preaching, Evangelis ...

as ''their'' own, because the members of the

monastic orders Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...

originated from Freiburg, the monasteries were dependent on the city as well. As specified in the

German mediatization German mediatisation (; ) was the major redistribution and reshaping of territorial holdings that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany by means of the subsumption and Secularization (church property), secularisation of a large number of ...

the monastery was closed in 1803 and the buildings were put to other use: The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the former Augustinian church was used as one of Germany´s first local theaters, which was housed there from 1823 to 1910. When the local theater opened the doors of its own building in 1910, the use of the nave no longer necessary. From 1874 on, the city stored its antiquities in the monastery, but most of the other buildings on the grounds were either neglected or were used as a school building or as an ammunition dump for the

troops A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a Squadron (cavalry), squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section (military unit), section or platoon. Exception ...

of Baden. When Max Wingenroth was designated the new director of the museum, it was decided to house the museum in the former monastery. In the beginning it was only called the municipal museum of Freiburg, but later on, with the addition of the city´s art collection, it became known as the Augustiner Museum. This way, one of the oldest and finest buildings of the city was preserved. Since the building complex is one of the last from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

there is still a large amount of historical structure and every now and then pieces dating from the Gothic era are found. Discoveries in the basement of the museum suggest that there were earlier settlements in the area. On the original site seven buildings were destroyed to build the monastery at the beginning of the 14th century and only one building was retained, it is likely that there was a monastery there before today´s was built. Augustinermuseum Eingang01

Building history

In 1278, Count Egino II authorized the construction of the monastery along with a church in the area between the Salzstraße and the city walls. The deed of foundation, dated December 6, shows that the Augustinian monks were already resident in Freiburg. In 1299, the

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, Conrad de Lichtenberg, consecrated the Augustinian church. The construction of the monastery was started later at the beginning of the 14th century. Because of a delivery note from 1332 it is known that

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

from the nearby Lorettoberg was used for the construction. Renovations and newly constructed buildings from the 17th and 18th century in the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

style, as well as more modifications in the 20th century, changed the original plan of the grounds. For example, in 1706 the ceiling of the

was raised and 10 new oval windows were added. As a further part of the modification two new

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

s were installed and the original monastery along with the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

were renovated. In 1784, Herman von Greiffenegg ordered eight Augustinian padres to move to the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friary on behalf of

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

. They had to take over the responsibility of the newly founded second parish St.Martin. On the other hand, the

friars who originally lived in the Franciscan monastery moved to the Augustinian. Further renovations were started in 2006, which changed the outer appearance of the buildings again. A new entrance with a foyer was added to the west front towards the Augustinerplatz and columns were added to the former nave. Also a gallery was added that goes all around. The basement and attic were reconstructed and used as exhibition rooms. This renovation was finished in 2010.

Notable former members

Some well known members of the monastic order in Freiburg were: * Tilmann Limperger (*1485-†1490)

in Freiburg,

provincial superior A provincial superior is an officer of a religious institute (including religious orders) acting under the institute's Superior General. A provincial superior exercises general supervision over all the members of that institute in a territorial ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and repeated dean of the

University A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. In 1498 he became the

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Tripolis and the

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led b ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. He preached the first

reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

sermon in the

Basel Minster Basel Minster (German: ''Basler Münster'') is a religious building in the Switzerland, Swiss city of Basel, originally a Roman Catholic cathedral and today a Continental Reformed church, Reformed Protestant church. The original cathedral was bu ...

in 1529. * Engelbert Klüpfel (*1733 - †1811), a student from 1754 to 1756, dogmatic theology professor at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

* Thomas Zeni (1707), plasterer and architect * Thomas Zipfeli, in 1787 he became the

and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

at St.Martin constructed a city map of Freiburg

Research

When in 1982 an archaeological examination of the latrine was performed, glass, pottery, wood, leather and textiles were found. Researchers dated them back to the late 13th to the 15th century. The finds are important examples of the handcraft of earlier times. The leather discoveries give a good impression of the monastery

shoemaking Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

, the glass and pottery show what kind of tableware the monastery owned, and the tools made of wood were still in good condition. Furthermore, the discoveries give an impression of the waste disposal of the time. The insights were documented in the magazine published by the group for protection of monuments

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

References

Bibliography

Van Uffelen, Chris. Contemporary Museums - Architecture, History, Collections, Braun Publishing, 2010, , pages 248-251.

External links

Augustiner Museum
* http://www.badische-zeitung.de/augustinermuseum-freiburg * http://www.badische-zeitung.de/kultur-sonstige/muensterfiguren-in-der-skulpturenhalle--28368093.html {{coord, 47.9939, N, 7.8525, E, source:wikidata, display=title, format=dms Augustinian monasteries in Germany Baroque architecture in Germany Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau Augustinian churches in Germany Baroque monasteries