Cologne Charterhouse

On this plot of land, there had been, since about the beginning of the 13th century, a little chapel dedicated to Saint Barbara, which was now renovated for Carthusian use with the financial assistance of the Cologne patrician families of Scherffgin and Lyskirchen.

In addition, the families of Lyskirchen and Overstolz made gifts of extra agricultural land, and in that way the material prerequisites for the commencement of the life of the order were assured.

Archbishop Walram had promised more to the charterhouse than he was able to deliver: his budget was diminished by the expenses of military conflict, and the monks were thus entirely dependent on the continuing generosity of the wealthy of Cologne.

Their individual endowments and the charterhouse's consequent obligations were recorded in benefactors' books, which until 2009 were preserved in the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne.

Much information about the resulting agreements with St. Severin's has survived, which throws light on the material pressures of monastic life: When Archbishop Walram died in 1349, the situation became even more precarious, but the following years saw the charterhouse grow in prestige and thus attract an increasing number of affluent novices, which made it wealthier, but also over-burdened the available residential space and the small chapel.

[7] The legacy of Canon Johannes of Brandenburg, who in 1365 left the monks an adjoining plot of land, provided the space for a new chapter house and library as well as the continued expansion of the church.

In 1393, the new church was consecrated, which in its essential features has lasted until today, and the charterhouse entered a period of prosperity which was to make it one of the richest monasteries in Cologne.

Through gifts of books and the entry to the community of wealthy and educated men who brought entire libraries with them, St. Barbara's possessed by the middle of the 15th century one of the largest collections of manuscripts in medieval Cologne.

This flourishing monastic life experienced an abrupt interruption when a catastrophic fire on 6 November 1451 totally destroyed the chapter house and adjacent buildings, including the entire library and its contents, except for those manuscripts which happened to be in individual cells for copying.

Generous gifts to the charterhouse – particularly from Peter Rinck, Rector of Cologne University – made it possible to rebuild the chapter house and library within two years.

Prior Hermann of Appeldorn (1457–1472) counts as the driving force during this period of reconstruction; at his death he was honoured for his financial acumen as "reformator et recuperator huius domus".

While he was prior not only was the library largely restored but also a new gatehouse was built and an altarpiece painted by Meister Christoph for the Angels' Altar in the charterhouse church.

In 1459, even before the charterhouse had begun to recover financially, Prior Johannes Castoris was appointed by Pope Pius II as abbot of the Benedictine St. Pantaleon's Abbey in Cologne, which was seriously in debt.

By the end of the 15th century the library had grown again to comprise some 500 volumes, and the church had gained two new triptychs by the Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, now considered masterpieces of European painting, and displayed in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum,[12] as well as the monumental cycle of paintings, made for display in the small cloister, by the Master of the Legend of Saint Bruno (speculatively dated around 1486).

[13] Presumably in part as a result of the monastery's experience of the loss of their library and the need to replace it, by the early 16th century the charterhouse had not only a printing-press but also a book bindery.

Aegidius Gelenius lists in his catalogue of the treasures of the Cologne Charterhouse, published in 1645, among many other relics "two pieces of the skull of Saint Bruno".

He was a highly regarded theologian, particularly influential in his work on the theology of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was the first to publish the mystical writings of Saint Gertrude of Helfta.

Despite desperate efforts to save the most valuable pieces of the church treasures, looting, theft and vandalism ensured that the irreplaceable collections of archives, books and artworks were irretrievably dispersed.

Until 1802, when all religious houses were finally dissolved in the secularisation, the Carthusian monks lived in temporary accommodation in what is now Martinstraße 19–21, made available to them by the Bürgermeister of Cologne, Johann Jakob von Wittgenstein.

It was not until 1894 that Ludwig Arntz, master builder of the cathedral, drew public attention to the importance and sorry condition of the monastery complex in an essay in the Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst.

For the loss of the use of the church the Protestant community was to receive compensation of 200,000 Paper Marks, but as the great 1920s German inflation was just taking hold this was not regarded as adequate.

In the first years of World War II, the charterhouse escaped significant damage from air raids, but the last major air attack of 2 March 1945 caused great destruction: the church, chapter house, cloisters and prior's house were severely damaged, and the external wall on to the street known as the Kartäusergasse was totally destroyed, as were the conventual buildings.

The conventual building used before the war by the finance office was also reconstructed and in 1960 occupied by the Protestant church administration of the city (evangelischer Stadtkirchenverband Köln).