Klosterkirche: Late Gothic Monastery Church in Blomberg, Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page9 sections
History
Klosterkirche is a late-medieval church in Blomberg, Germany, built during the second half of the fifteenth century in the Late Gothic style. Formerly the monastery church of the Holy Body, it now serves as the parish church of Blomberg’s Protestant Reformed congregation within the East Class of the Lippe Regional Church. The building is regarded as the most significant late-medieval church in Lippe.
Foundation and Pilgrimage
The church’s foundation is connected with a pilgrimage tradition involving Alheyd Pustekoke, a woman from Blomberg. In 1460, she reportedly stole consecrated hosts while facing a personal emergency. Fearing that the theft had been discovered, she threw them into a well, was captured, and was burned. The well then gained a reputation for healing, and the resulting pilgrimage grew enough for Bernhard VII, ruler of Lippe, to order a church at the site in 1462.
In 1468, Bernhard VII summoned Augustinian canons from Möllenbeck Abbey. These religious communities followed the Rule of Saint Augustine while undertaking pastoral and liturgical work. The canons founded the monastery of the Holy Body and granted indulgences to pilgrims. An indulgence was a remission of temporal penalties associated with sin, traditionally granted by the Church under specified conditions. The church was completed around 1485.
The Lippe Crypt
Bernhard VII commissioned a crypt beneath the western part of the church for the noble House of Lippe. His wife, Anna of Holstein-Schauenburg, became the first person buried there in 1495. The crypt was enlarged in 1586 and again in 1622, while the final burial took place in 1769.
Reformation and Parish Use
The Reformation, the sixteenth-century religious movement that brought major changes to Western Christianity, led to the dissolution of the monastery. Its final end came in 1569. In 1651, Count Johann Bernhard gave the monastery church and its surrounding grounds to the city of Blomberg. The Protestant Reformed congregation then used it as a second church alongside the neighboring Martinikirche, a church dedicated to Saint Martin.
When the Martinikirche was demolished in 1833, apart from its tower, the former monastery church became the congregation’s only church. The surviving tower is now used as its bell tower. A monument on Blomberg’s market square commemorates Alheyd Pustekoke and the host theft associated with the pilgrimage tradition.
Remains
Church Layout and Exterior
Klosterkirche is a three-aisled, three-bay hall church with a square ground plan. In a hall church, the nave and side aisles are approximately equal in height, creating a unified interior space. At the east end, a one-bay choir terminates in a 5/8 polygon, an eastern end formed by five sides of an eight-sided geometric figure. A two-storey sacristy was added to the choir around 1500. The side aisles have transverse gabled roofs with half-timbered gables. The north and west sides are windowless, while the south side contains Gothic pointed-arch windows with tracery featuring varied fish-bladder patterns, formed from curved, flame-like compartments. The pointed-arch main portal stands on the south side of the central bay.
Bell Arrangement and Foundation Well
Following Augustinian church-building practice, the church was constructed without a tower. Its bells were formerly housed in a projection on the western transverse gable on the south side. The well associated with the foundation tradition lies within the nave and has since been built over.
Double Tomb Chest
A Late Gothic double tomb chest for Bernhard VII and Anna of Lippe stands in the choir. Made around 1511–1515 and attributed to Heinrich Brabender, it is a monumental sarcophagus-like tomb carrying effigies of two people. Life-size figures of the couple lie on its cover slab.
Organ
The present organ was built in 1930 by Bernd Stegerhoff of Paderborn. It replaced an instrument made in 1839 by Georg Carl Kuhlmann of Gottsbüren, which Carl August Randebrock of Paderborn rebuilt in 1860. Siegfried Sauer of Ottbergen restored the organ in 1980–1981 and converted it to electric actions. It has 31 stops, or sets of pipes, distributed across two manuals and a pedal, with pipework from Kuhlmann, Randebrock, and Stegerhoff. Its equipment includes cone chests, couplers for II/I and II/P, two free combinations, one free pedal combination, and a crescendo roller.
