Former St. Georgenberg Monastery in Frankenberg (Eder)

The foundation of the former Cistercian convent goes back to a foundation by the noblemen of Itter, who owned a domain north of Frankenberg. Their attempt to found a convent near Sachsenberg failed. With the help of the Landgraves of Thuringia, the new monastery was then built just outside Frankenberg from 1249 and given the patronage of the Frankenberg chapel.

The castle and town of Frankenberg were to serve as a base for the Hessian-Thuringian landgraves and the St. Georgenberg monastery was to help strengthen their influence in this area. This rather secular intention and the relatively close proximity to the up-and-coming town of Frankenberg meant that the monastery not only played an important role in the religious sphere, but also in the social life of the region.

Its inmates were divided into religious and lay sisters, most of whom came from the families of the landed gentry, from the patrician families of the surrounding towns and, in the case of lay sisters, also from lower social classes. These close family ties between the surrounding countryside, the nearby town and the nuns led to lively interactions that extended the influence of St. Georgenberg beyond the monastery walls.
The monastery was dissolved in 1568, but the nuns - the last of whom died in 1581 - still had the right to stay.

The two-storey, three-winged building group from the 13th to 17th centuries is well preserved and still appears as a whole today.

The north wing is undoubtedly the most impressive, with the late Romanesque former St. Mauritius Chapel on the east side. It is divided by false ceilings. The long, narrow arched windows date from the mid-13th century and give the building its special style. The rest of the north wing was built at the end of the 14th century and modified at the beginning of the 16th century. Remarkable is the part in which the rest of the former cloister with late Gothic tracery windows is located.

Today, the former Cistercian convent of St. Georgenberg is home to the District Home Museum, which was established in the north wing of the complex and opened to the public on May 29, 1952. The first museum director was co-founder Georg Merkel until 1977. In 1984, after four years of renovation, the museum area was extended to include the Mauritius Chapel, built in the Romanesque style. The museum director during this time was Alfred Sehmisch (1982 - 1995). This project was largely carried out by the association "Kreisheimatmuseum Frankenberg e. V." (see below) under its deputy chairman Heinz Brandt, retired school principal / historian / local historian. H. Brandt is also the author of the book "Philipp Soldan von Frankenberg, ein hessischer Künstler des 16. Jahrhunderts", which was published by the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg in 1984 and is on sale in the museum.

The museum exhibits focus on the work of the Frankenberg artist Philipp Soldan (1500 - 1570), wood carver, stone sculptor and master of the stove slab in the 16th century. His artistically carved beam heads, which once adorned the Church of Our Lady in Frankenberg, can be found in the museum. The motifs, which include monks, owls, lions, rams' heads, virgins and masks, are very impressive and mark the transition from the late Gothic period to the Renaissance in terms of art history. The cloister also houses works by another famous son of Frankenberg: the master builder and stone sculptor Tyle von Frankenberg (14th century). You will find sandstone figures by the artist in the museum, also from the Church of Our Lady, which were removed and partially mutilated (destroyed) during the iconoclasm of 1606 on the orders of Hessian Landgrave Moritz the Learned.

You can find more information about the museum at:
Museum im Kloster in Frankenberg (Eder) - Ederbergland Touristik e.V. +
Museum im Kloster landkreis-waldeck-frankenberg