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Nuremberg Charterhouse (''Kartäuserkloster Nürnberg'', also ''Kartause Marienzell'') was a

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has i ...

monastery, or charterhouse, in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Its surviving premises are now incorporated into the

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...

History

The monastery was founded in 1380 for the Carthusian order by the merchant Marquard Mendel. The extensive building complex was erected outside the first city wall in the southern suburb of Nuremberg, between the convent of the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

and St. James's (''Jakobskirche''), the former church of the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

. The laying of the foundation stone of the monastery church took place on 16 February 1381, and was attended by

Wenceslaus, King of the Romans Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; cs, Václav; german: Wenzel, nicknamed "the Idle"; 26 February 136116 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he ...

, and the Papal Legate Cardinal Pileus. The first monks there are documented from as early as 1382, and the church is believed to have been consecrated in 1383 (or possibly 1387). In 1385 the founder, Marquard Mendel, was buried in the quire of the new church. After the laying of the foundation stone (16 February 1381) the church, a

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 ...

structure with a single nave, was constructed in two portions: the eastern parts up to c. 1383/87 and the western extension until 1405 (according to

dendrochronological Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...

investigation the roof timbers were felled in that year). At the same time as the church and the sacristy the chapter house was built on the south side of the church, producing a cruciform ground-plan. Probably shortly after 1459 the chapter-house received its own integral choir and the whole building was covered with a fan-vaulted ceiling. The small courtyard was finished by 1405.

Dissolution

During the

Protestant Reformation 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 ...

many monks followed the teachings of

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

and left their monasteries. Nuremberg Charterhouse was the only Carthusian monastery in Germany where so many did so that the monastery was dissolved, which it was, in 1525. Its assets were transferred to the general alms fund of the city. On part of the former monastic premises houses were built, and in 1552 the church was pressed into service as a gunpowder magazine. It was restored to religious use in 1615 as a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church. From 1784 it was again a Roman Catholic church.Großmann 1997, 14f. In 1810 it was taken over by the Bavarian military authorities as a magazine, and also for stables. In 1857 the remaining structures, severely damaged, were taken over by the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

caused substantial damage, including the destruction of the chapter house, which was investigated archaeologically in 1998. Some of the once-monastic buildings round the church still survive, although often greatly changed in the re-building: the large and small courtyards with parts of the vaulted cloister as well as the monks' houses along its north range.

Notes

Sources

* Dehio: ''Bayern I: Franken'', 2. edn., Munich, 1999, pp. 766 ff. * Günther P. Fehring und Anton Ress: ''Die Stadt Nürnberg. Kurzinventar'', 2nd edn revised by Wilhelm Schwemmer, Munich: Dt. Kunstverl. 1977 eprint 1982(Bayerische Kunstdenkmale; 10), pp.198 ff. * Claudia Frieser, ''Die archäologische Untersuchung des ehemalige Kapitelsaals im Kartäuserkloster zu Nürnberg'', in ''Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums'' 2000, pp. 67–75 *

G. Ulrich Großmann Georg Ulrich Großmann (29 November 1953) is a German art historian. He was general director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. Life Born in Marburg, Großmann studied art history, European ethnology and Christian archaeology at ...

: ''Architektur und Museum - Bauwerk und Sammlung,'' Ostfildern-Ruit 1997 (= ''Kulturgeschichtliche Spaziergänge im Germanischen Nationalmuseum'', Bd.1), passim and esp. pp. 12–26 * Sabina Fulloni, ''Untersuchungen am Dachstuhl der Marienkirche des Kartäuserklosters zu Nürnberg'', in: ''Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums'' 2001, * Hermann Maué: ''Die Bauten der Kartause von ihrer Gründung 1380 bis zur Übernahme durch das Museum im Jahre 1857'', in: Bernward Deneke and Rainer Kahsnitz (eds): ''Das Germanische Nationalmuseum. Nuremberg, 1852-1977. Beiträge zu seiner Geschichte'', Munich/Berlin 1978, {{Authority control Carthusian monasteries in Germany Monasteries in Bavaria

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey Londo ...

Christian monasteries established in the 14th century 1380s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1380 establishments in Europe