Munkeliv Abbey

The monastery Munkeliv was an important medieval monastery in Bergen ( Norway). It was drafted during the Reformation in favor of the Danish crown. Remains of buildings of the former convent are no longer visible.

History of the Benedictine monastery

The monastery was founded Munkeliv 1110 by King Øystein Magnusson in the course of its development the city of Bergen as a Benedictine monastery and dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It evolved with the prosperous city of Bergen to one of the most important monasteries in Norway. Make an incision brought the great plague of 1349 and the ensuing depression in Norway. At the end of the 14th century, the buildings of the monastery were destroyed in the attack of Rostock and Wismar Vitalienbrüder on April 22, 1393. Our solid financial resources of the monastery made ​​the Benedictines reconstruction possible.

Birgittenkloster

At the end of the first quarter of the 15th century the monastery was with the blessing of the Vatican by the Order of the Benedictines on the rapidly spreading from the main monastery of Vadstena young Birgitt friars, Birgitta of Sweden was founded in 1350 and recognized in 1370 by Pope Urban V. had been. As Birgittenkloster Munkeliv was a double monastery for monks and nuns. In the Order, the monastery was soon on the importance and prestige forth in the first row next to the prestigious monasteries Mariendal at Reval in Estonia, Klostermarienberg Wohlde at Mölln near Lübeck and the monastery Mariakron in Stralsund.

1455 were the buildings of the monastery Munkeliv again heavily damaged by fire, as the merchants of the Hanseatic Danish governor Olav Nilsson, the commander of the fortress Bergenhus pursued. This had sought refuge in the monastery, so that it came to the monastery to attack the German merchants. Monks and nuns were moved to the monastery Hovedøya in Oslo. The reconstruction of the monastery was initially Munkeliv by Cistercian and only in 1480 the monastery was taken over again by Bridget, who remained now until the Reformation. To 1496, the bailiff and the city council of Bergen complained in a letter at the mother house in Vadstena over the life of the members of the monastery Munkeliv. The nuns talked a house near the German Bridge near the houses of the Friller, the concubines of German merchants. But the way of life of the monks of the monastery was considered un-Christian. 1523 came on behalf of King Frederik I. Vincens lung to Bergen to first push the followers of the deposed King Christian II from the possession of the fortress Bergenhus. However, allied with him Lübeck and members of the Hanseatic Kontor in Bergen not rushed together with him Bergenhus, but made ​​a failure on the part of the Norwegian city of Bergen. Continued unrest in Bergen were the result and in the course of the Reformation, the monastery was largely realized in favor of the crown, while lung was awarded by the king, the monastery Nonneseter. The building of Munkeliv were based in part on the Bishop of Bergen as a residence and brought the monastery church became a cathedral. 1536 burned the whole system again and was built over other again until the 19th century. The cathedral was laid again: in 1537 the church of the Franciscan monastery became the cathedral church of St. Olav.

Aftermath

The Romanesque bust of the founder Øystein Magnusson from the former monastery church is located in the Bergen Museum. It was discovered in 1860 by the Norwegian archaeologist Nicolay Nicolaysen at excavations on the site of the former church. Hans -Emil Lidén writes the marble bust and the rest of the architectural sculpture to recalling similar work in Speyer influences of a Lombard sculptor school. It is considered the oldest portrait of a Norwegian.

Also from the Birgitten there posthumous testimonies of high culture. In the library of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Prague Castle is the calendar Munkalivense, also called Birgittae Psalter, a manuscript whose book illustrations were produced in 1450 by the nun Birgitta Sigfusdatter in Munkeliv monastery. According to the judgment of the Swedish Empire librarian Collijn is one of the " most beautiful manuscripts that have arisen in the 15th century in Scandinavia ." Other manuscripts from the monastery Munkeliv secures the Danish Royal Library. The monastery Munkeliv applies to the historical sources as exceptionally well documented.