Elten: A High-Noble Women’s Collegiate Foundation in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page13 sections
History
Elten is a Roman Catholic foundation for noble women in Germany, established around 967 by Count Wichmann of Hamaland at Hochelten, now part of Emmerich. Its later church followed Romanesque architecture, a medieval style known for massive masonry and rounded arches. Dedicated to Saint Vitus, the foundation developed into an imperial institution with territorial, judicial, and political privileges that endured, with restrictions, until its dissolution in 1811.
The Hamaland castle and foundation
A castle belonging to the counts of Hamaland stood on the Eltenberg by the late ninth or early tenth century. Excavations in the 1960s indicate that at least part of the fortification was built after the Norman invasions. The castle may have replaced an earlier Hamaland stronghold constructed after 882, which reportedly became involved in the conflict surrounding Godfrey the Norman in 885.
Emperor Otto I visited Elten in 944. Around 967, Wichmann transformed his timber residential castle into a stone-built community for noble canonesses. Canonesses were noble women who lived under the statutes of a collegiate foundation without necessarily following the strict enclosure and vows of a nunnery. Wichmann’s daughter Liutgard became the first abbess.
Otto I granted the foundation imperial property in 968, apparently including a fief formerly held by Wichmann, and confirmed Wichmann’s hereditary donations in 970. In the same year, Wichmann transferred the collegiate church to papal authority. In 973, Otto II placed Elten under imperial protection, granted immunity over its possessions, and confirmed the canonesses’ right to elect their abbess, subject to approval by the bishop of Utrecht.
Imperial privileges and noble conflict
A settlement issued under Otto III in 996 reaffirmed Elten’s donations, immunity, and election rights. It placed the foundation on an equal footing with the women’s collegiate foundations of Essen, Quedlinburg, and Gandersheim, and renewed its annual payment to Saint Peter in Rome.
Wichmann’s daughter Adela of Hamaland challenged the legality of her father’s donation and claimed half of his property as an inheritance. Her husband, Count Balderich of Drenthe, destroyed or sacked Elten twice during the resulting feud. After Liutgard’s death, Adela and Balderich appeared before an imperial court, but the dispute continued until Adela’s death around 1017.
Elten temporarily lost its imperial immediacy under Emperor Henry IV, who granted it to the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in 1083. Imperial immediacy meant direct subordination to the Holy Roman Emperor rather than to a territorial prince. Elten had regained this position by 1129, when a charter of Emperor Lothar III confirmed its status.
In connection with the consecration of a new church in 1129, Lothar III granted the foundation an annual income of two pounds from the customs revenue of Duisburg. From the twelfth century, the abbesses held the rank of imperial princesses. The title is first documented for Abbess Elsa in 1390, and the associated regalia are attested from 1403. Elten was not assigned to an imperial circle, and its abbesses did not belong to the Rhenish College of Prelates.
Administration and noble membership
The foundation’s territory around Elten covered 1,469 hectares in 1789. It included the collegiate site, houses in Hochelten and Niederelten, and additional land. Its scattered possessions extended between the region of Arnhem and that of Xanten, including land in the present-day Netherlands and the Duchy of Cleves.
The abbess could choose the foundation’s secular advocate, or Vogt. This official represented Elten in legal and administrative matters and could exercise jurisdiction on its behalf, although the bishop of Utrecht had to approve the appointment. The office was held by the dukes of Guelders in the fifteenth century. After Guelders came under Burgundian control, it passed to Charles the Bold, who transferred it in 1473 to the dukes of Cleves. From 1614, the office belonged to the electors of Brandenburg and, after 1701, to Prussia.
Brandenburg-Prussia progressively restricted Elten’s jurisdiction. Brandenburg assumed control of the Saint Vitus market in 1683, sought influence over the election of abbesses, and obtained the right to nominate candidates after 1678. Elten lost its hunting rights during the seventeenth century, while the respective Vogt had held the market toll since 1433. The canonesses nevertheless retained imperial immediacy and parts of their judicial and customs rights until 1803.
A record from 1380 lists twelve canonesses and twelve designated successors. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century necrologies associate approximately sixty families with the foundation, although the interpretation of this evidence remains disputed. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, admission apparently required women to belong to the high nobility and to demonstrate eight noble quarters.
In the eighteenth century, six prebends supported canonesses and four supported male canons. A prebend was an endowed income attached to a collegiate position. The principal offices were those of abbess, dean, and sacristan. Some women entered as children and received their education within the foundation, while later residence was no longer required to receive prebend income. Four ordained male canons served the liturgy and pastoral needs of the foundation and held voting rights in the chapter.
War, dissolution, and later history
The church and convent buildings were destroyed in 1585 during the war between Spain and the Netherlands. The canonesses then lived for approximately sixty years in a foundation-owned house in Emmerich. The church was partly rebuilt before being replaced by a new structure in 1670.
After the dissolution of the Diocese of Utrecht during the Reformation, Elten received full exemption in 1669. Prussia seized the foundation in 1802, and the Imperial Deputation of 1803 assigned it to Prussia. Following Prussia’s territorial losses, Elten passed to the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806. Napoleon dissolved the foundation by imperial decree on 18 March 1811. Six canonesses remained at that time and received pensions.
The Congress of Vienna restored the territory to Prussia in 1815, and the former collegiate church became the parish church of Hoch-Elten. Prussia incorporated Elten into the district of Rees in 1816. The convent buildings were sold for demolition in 1832. The church was later destroyed during the Second World War and reconstructed in Romanesque forms, using the dimensions of the 1670 building. The former abbess’s residence now houses the Jesuit Stanislaus College as a retreat house.
Remains
The surviving complex occupies the summit of the Eltenberg, approximately 60 metres above the Rhine plain. Its physical remains combine the reconstructed church with three convent buildings and objects associated with the foundation’s religious life. The medieval castle that preceded the collegiate foundation occupied the same elevated site and was a fortified structure associated with the counts of Hamaland.
Church and convent buildings
Saint Vitus church
The foundation’s original church was rebuilt around 1100 as a large Romanesque basilica approximately 65 metres long, with an octagonal dome. Bishop Sigward of Minden consecrated it in 1129 in the presence of Lothar III. Destruction in 1585 led to partial rebuilding, followed by construction of a new church in 1670. Second World War damage left the building almost entirely destroyed, and the postwar reconstruction restored a Romanesque appearance while retaining the dimensions of the seventeenth-century structure.
Salm-Reifferscheid residence
West of the church stands the 1667 residence of the abbess from the Salm-Reifferscheid family. Its facade carries an inscription naming Anna Salome, princess-abbess of Essen and sacristan of Elten. The building now contains the Jesuit Stanislaus College.
Manderscheid-Blankenheim residence
A second abbess’s residence stands beside the Drusus Spring. It is associated with the Manderscheid-Blankenheim family, and its facade bears an inscription referring to Maria Franziska of Manderscheid-Blankenheim, dean of Elten and provost of Vreden. A small house between this residence, the Salm-Reifferscheid building, and the church forms the third surviving convent building.
Treasury and sacred objects
Architectural reliquary
The former treasury included a reliquary more than half a metre high, shaped as a domed church and decorated with coloured enamel and ivory. A reliquary is a container made to preserve or display a relic. This object represents the former basilica and its dome and is now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Reliquary monstrances
The treasury chiefly contained liturgical equipment and relics. A substantial part was hidden during the French occupation in the coalition wars and later returned to the church. Two Gothic reliquary monstrances dating from around 1400 were lost during their evacuation in the Second World War. The remaining treasury is exhibited with that of the former Martinistift in Emmerich’s Martinikirche.
Nearby sites
