The Greyfriars Abbey ( sv, Gråbrödraklostret), sometimes also simply Abbey in Ystad ( sv, Klostret i Ystad), is a medieval former friary in

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Together with

Vadstena Abbey The Abbey Pax Mariae ( la, Monasterium sanctarum Mariæ Virgìnis et Brigidæ in Vatzstena), more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, situated on Lake Vättern in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden, was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Orde ...

, it is one of the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Sweden. It houses the Museum of the cultural history of Ystad ( sv, Klostret i Ystad).

History

According to an inscription from the 14th century, the monastery was founded by a donation by a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

called Holmger and his wife Katarina in 1267 and inaugurated by the Bishop of Reval. From the outset, it belonged to the

Franciscan order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

, who were popularly known as ''grey friars'' (hence the name of the monastery), and functioned as a friary for

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

s. Throughout the Middle Ages several documented donations to the monastery took place. In 1532, amidst the ongoing

reformation in Denmark The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, the Danish king

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoller ...

ordered the Franciscans to leave the monastery. They were however not allowed to leave in peace as the citizens of Ystad took the matter in their own hands and forcibly evicted the friars on 24 March 1532. Subsequently, the building was transformed into an

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

. Little is known of the building's fate during this time, but sometime, probably during the early years of the 1600s, the western and northern wings of the building were pulled down, quite possibly due to a lack of funding. The brick was probably sold as building material and used in the building of some nearby manor or castle. In 1658, Denmark handed over Ystad and the monastery to Swedish authorities following the

Treaty of Roskilde The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat, ...

. In 1777, the hospital closed and the premises were taken over by the state-owned

akvavit ''Akvavit'' or ''aquavit'' (; also ''akevitt'' in Norwegian; ''aquavit'' in English) is a distilled spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century. ''Akvavit'' is distilled from grain or potat ...

distillery, but as the state abolished its alcohol monopoly in 1786 it became used instead as a

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

. In the early 19th century the building was left to decay. In 1877, the building was purchased by the city government and plans both to restore and to pull the building down were ventilated. It was only in 1909, however, that restoration works finally began.

Architecture

The monastery complex consists of three connected buildings: the parish church of St. Peter (the former church of the monastery), the former

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

and the one preserved wing originally forming one side of a quadrangle. The buildings are almost exclusively erected in red

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

, making the edifice one of the most striking examples in Sweden of

Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...

. Surrounding the buildings are a rose garden, laid out in 2002, and a herbal garden, laid out in 1998.

The church of St. Peter

The former church of the monastery is a narrow, rectangular church with whitewashed

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

groin vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: L ...

ing and restrained decoration, both on the inside and the exterior. This is typical for Franciscan churches, an outward sign of their pledges of poverty. 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 ...

is flanked by a single

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

to the south. The windows are high and narrow Gothic windows. A bell tower that reaches above the rest of the church is located to the east of the aisle. Externally, the western façade is decorated with

blind arch A blind arch is an arch found in the wall of a building that has been infilled with solid construction and so cannot serve as a passageway, door or window.''A Dictionary of Architecture''; Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966) T ...

es.

The gatehouse

The two-storey gatehouse dates from sometime between the late 14th century and the middle of the 15th, a period in which the monastery was greatly expanded. It originally connected the church with the western wing, now destroyed, which probably housed guest rooms.

The monastery

The one surviving wing of the monastery proper is a rectangular building with a

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

facing the former quadrangle. The building has a

half-timber Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

ed extension protruding to the north-east, and richly decorated

crow-stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a ...

s. The windows are typically pointed undecorated Gothic windows.

Gallery

File:Gråbrødrekloster Ystad ydre1.jpg, Exterior view from the north-west File:Sankt Petri Kyrka.jpg, Exterior view from the south-east File:Ystad Kloster2.JPG, Exterior view from the north-east File:Gråbrødrekloster Ystad indre1.jpg, Interior view of the church File:Gråbrödraklostret i Ystad 03.jpg, Greyfriars Abbey,

References

External links

Official webpage (in Swedish)
* {{Catholic Church in Sweden Museums in Skåne County Buildings and structures in Skåne County Franciscan monasteries in Denmark Franciscan monasteries in Sweden