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[hildegard] |
I found Beselich courtesy of web site the Society for the Preservation of the Beselich Klosteruine e V. At the time the site advertised a "Grillfest" to raise funds. This fascinated me because of the parallels with Dendermonde. (Sadly, the site, which is still "under construction", now contains less information than it did).
It was originally difficult to find Beselich on a map, although the site on meinestadt.de now has more detail. It appears that the castle was originally important, but eventually the town of Neidertiefenbach appeared on maps. When the municipality was formed, the name Beselich seems to have been used for the whole area. The municipality, in Limburg - Weilburg, is formed of four villages, Obertiefenbach, Niedertiefenbach, Heckholzhausen and Schupbach. To the right is the Pfarrkirche St. Ägidius in Obertiefenbach.
When I finally found the place, I discovered that the castle, the ruined cloister and a small chapel are on the Beselicher Hopf above Obertiefenbach (the Tiefenbach is the local river). The monastery was founded in 1163, by the "wandering preacher" Gottfried Clamator (der Rufer). He founded several monasteries in the area but by the late middle ages this one had become one of the richest religious houses in the area. Gottfried also seems to have been influential in the building of the first bridge at Limburg, tolls from which were one of Limburg's main sources of income for many years.
I'm interested in Gottfried, and in the area, because he was almost a contemporary of Hildegard of Bingen. We aim to visit the place whilst in Germany in July 2002. When the Reformation ended monastic life, the church fell into disrepair. Early in the seventeenth century part of it was redeveloped by Jesuits. Drawings and maps indicate that significant parts of the ruin still existed at that time, but eventually a large part of it was demolished around 1660. The monastery area was probably on the north side.
At the end of the 18th century Georg Niederstraßernto, an ex-soldier turned Franciscan hermit, built a little chapel on the hill, the Wallpfarrkapelle, to which a bell-tower was added in the 19th century. When the monastery was excavated in 1954, the evidence indicated that it was about sixty by twenty feet, perhaps influenced in its design by churches in Limburg and Dietkirchen. A Babelfish translation suggests that the monastery may originally have had three ships strapped to its roof. I know what Babelfish means, but it's such a wonderful mistranslation that I'll leave you to work it out for yourself.