St. Katharina (St. Catherine's Church) in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, was an important

medieval 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 World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

church, destroyed during the Second World War and preserved as a ruin.

History

St. Catherine's was the church of a former Dominican convent, in the

Diocese of Bamberg The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bamberg (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Metropolitae Bambergensis'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Bavaria, one of 27 in Germany. In 2015, 32.9% of the population identified as Catholic, and 15.6% o ...

, famous for its

library. It was founded in 1295 by Konrad von Neumarkt and his wife Adelheid,

patricians The patricians (from ) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 B ...

of the Pfinzig family. In the Middle Ages it had an important medieval library. After the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, it became a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church. The convent was closed in 1596 after the last inhabitant died. The church was associated with the

Meistersinger A (German for "master singer") was a member of a German guild for lyric poetry, composer, composition and a cappella, unaccompanied art song of the 14th to 16th centuries. The Meistersingers were drawn from middle class males for the most part ...

s who met there from 1620 to 1778, and is featured in the opening scene of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

''. After the invasion of Austria in 1938 and the Anschluss annexing the Austrian Federal State, the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor was taken as plunder and stored here in Nuremberg, until it was transferred to a

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

for the duration of the war. Bardentreffen 2013 3668

Although destroyed by air raids in 1945, it was partially restored (1970–71) and is used for events such as open-air concerts.

References

Bibliography

External links

Dokumentierende Rekonstruktion der Bibliothek des Nürnberger Katharinenklosters
{{Authority control Lutheran churches in Nuremberg Nuremberg Katharine Nuremberg Katharine Nuremberg Katharine