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

Ystad Ystad () 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 tourist attracti ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Together with Vadstena Abbey, it is one of the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Sweden. It houses the Museum of the cultural history of 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 a 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. The concept of a knighthood ...

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

Franciscan order 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 ...

, 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 in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

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

reformation in Denmark 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 ...

, the Danish king Frederick I 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) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

. 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 was negotiated at Høje Taastrup Church and was 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 ci ...

. In 1777, the hospital closed and the premises were taken over by the state-owned akvavit distillery, but as the state abolished its alcohol monopoly in 1786 it became used instead as a

granary A granary, also known as a grain house and historically as a granarium in Latin, is a post-harvest storage building primarily for grains or seeds. Granaries are typically built above the ground to prevent spoilage and protect the stored grains o ...

. 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, funded by

Clara Lachmann Clara Lachmann (; 10 April 1864 – 10 August 1920) was a Danish and Swedish patron of the arts. After coming into immense wealth following her marriage to one of the richest men in Sweden, Lachmann became a prominent sponsor of musical events, ...

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 most ...

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 construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

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

Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...

. 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 groin vaulting 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 a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

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 arches.

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 , "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 ...

facing the former quadrangle. The building has a

half-timber Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

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 ...

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 Franciscan monasteries in Denmark Franciscan monasteries in Sweden Buildings and structures in Ystad