Sunnisheim Monastery

Former Benedictine Monastery

Sinsheim’s historical trademark has always been the monumental monastery tower on Michaelsberg. The foundation of the Benedictine abbey in the year 1100 goes back to Bishop Johannes von Speyer, the nephew of the Salian Emperor Henry IV, who granted the monastery extraordinary privileges.

Only fractions remain of the formerly significant three-nave design monastery, the construction of which began in the year 1100.

Sunnisheim Monetary in the Winter. In 1496, the monastery was changed into a secular college and, in 1525, destroyed by peasant masses during the Reformation. The monastery tower was eventually rebuilt using the fines placed upon the peasants and the unique round dome was built. The monastery was destroyed again and again in the following wars and would eventually serve as a stone quarry for the desperate Sinsheim population.

Today, the renovated space is home to the Sunnisheim Monestary Youth Club . The external premises can be viewed at any time. Visits to the tower and the former monastery are available with prior registration: 07261/693-0. For tours of 10 persons or more, call: 07261/404-950. You can find more information about the changeful history of the former Benedictine monastery at the City and Liberty Museum, where literature on this subject can also be acquired.

Building explanations

1. Church
Built 1100 -1533
The former center point of the monastery remains only as a frame. Originally, the basilica had another two sides and a transept that was destroyed along with the choir over the course of the centuries.
Noteworthy here is the interior Gothic jube. Sections of its painting date back to the 17th Century when the entire nave was painted.
After the monastery was closed, the building was used for storage.
During the 1930s, a concrete intermediate ceiling was added.
The upper section serves as functional space.


2. Dormitory and Refectory
(sleeping and common rooms for the monks)
Today: administration, conference space, youth club

3. Pestalozzi House
Built in 1927 as a so-called “fortified building” with individual cells for “delinquent children.”
All of the building’s windows were barred.
A statue of the Swiss pedagogue Pestalozzi is found above the entrance.

.4. Sunnisheim Building
A typical building from the time of the House of Salvation Movement.
Completed in this form in the year the home was founded, 1889.
However, a stone located at the right of the base of the courtyard entrance gives record of the actual year of construction.
The text on the stone says:
HERE IS STATED
WHEN THE SPIRITUAL PALATINE
ADMINISTRATION RENOVATED THE LOCAL MONASTERY.

5. Tower and Building
The form of today’s building was determined by the reconstruction in 1622 using base walls from the Middle Ages (mentioned left, above the arch).
The tower has a Gothic and Roman arch.
Today, two small groups are housed in these buildings.

6. Living Quarters of the Monastery Guard
In the wall to the left of the entry is an ornamental stone from the former building showing the coat-of-arms of the von Habern (two axes).
Above the entrance, there is a keystone with the monastery’s emblem, the two angels, and the year 1787.
Today’s personnel quarters are in the space of a building that was torn down in 1972 and has the same architecture and size.