R.K. Karmelitessenklooster

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction.

CARMELITE CONVENT built according to designs by Dr. P.J.H. Cuypers in the years 1879-1880 for a community of Discalced Carmelites, who had fled to Echt in 1875 from the St. Josephs Convent near St. Gereon in Cologne due to the Kulturkampf. The convent is characterized by a craftsman-traditional building style in brick, with austere Neo-Gothic elements. The sculptured relief in the tympanum of the church portal is presumed to be by sculptor Jos. Thissen from Roermond. The convent is situated on an extensive plot in the west of the centre of Echt. The front facade of the square-formed building is set within the western street line of the Bovenste Straat. Behind this lies a multi-sided walled GARDEN. This GARDEN with boundary walls and storage vaults is inseparably connected with the Carmelite convent and fulfils an important function for the sisters in observing the convent rules. The Carmel in Echt gained additional fame through the residence between 1938 and 1942 of Edith Stein, who was canonized in 1998. The convent has been inhabited since 1987 by a community of Carmelites from Maastricht. In 1960 a major conversion took place of, among others, the chapel and sacristy. This resulted in the complete disappearance of the Neo-Gothic furnishings of the chapel and sisters' choir. Other changes concern the retiling of the cloister, presumably in the middle of the twentieth century. The garage against the right side wall of the west building is not described here, nor is the modern host bakery in the garden.

Description.

The CARMELITE CONVENT consists of four buildings of unequal height surrounding an incompletely rectangular courtyard. Access to the walled GARDEN located behind the convent is provided via a gate on the side of the Bovenste Straat, with a passage between the north wall of the convent and the adjacent building. The simply laid out garden has among other things a partially newly established convent burial ground and some old gravel paths, has a boundary wall and some storage vaults. The four convent buildings are constructed in brick in cross-bonded pattern and are mainly finished with gabled roofs covered with smoked ogee and Flemish bond tiles. Drainage takes place via wooden gutters, whereby beneath the gutter there is always a slightly overhanging gutter line with decorative dentilation. The facades are provided with straight-finished or segmentally-arched openings, filled with wooden windows and doors. The windows are almost everywhere fitted with hard stone drip moulds and at the top with round-arched or segmentally-arched arch rings with simple brickwork infill. The northern 6-bay section of the two-storey high EAST BUILDING is angled and is covered by a gabled roof that abuts at right angles in the south against the wall of the higher chapel. This chapel is covered by a gabled roof with the ridge direction transverse to the building line. The roof above the east building is provided with a chimney and contains some original cast-iron roof lights. The FRONT FACADE has a slightly projecting rendered plinth. The chapel facade projects slightly and terminates in a pointed gable crowned by a stone gable cross. The pointed gable is finished with natural stone coping and shoulder pieces. The facade has lisenes on both sides, which in the top gable pass into rising arch friezes. The pointed-arched entrance is surrounded by rendered blockwork and has a double wooden plank door. In front of the door two natural stone steps. Above the door a natural stone, profiled lintel and a sculptured tympanum with the representation of a throned Mary with child, flanked by a Carmelite friar and a Carmelite nun. To the right of the door a memorial stone for Edith Stein affixed in the fourth quarter of the twentieth century. Above the entrance the facade is largely filled by a rectangular window on a continuous drip moulding surrounded by a partially stepped frame in natural stone. The window is filled with slender Gothic tracery in four sections, in the form of coupled lancet arches with trefoil crownings. The stained glass fill dates from 1992. The front facade of the convent has a break between the second and third bays from the left. The first and second storeys are separated by a continuous cornice line executed in decorative brickwork. The bays are filled with segmentally-arched windows provided with divided sash windows under three-light fanlights. The main entrance to the convent is located approximately in the middle in the third bay from the left. The door opening has a rendered, rectangular surround and is crowned by a triple lancet-arch window, provided with stained glass from the second half of the twentieth century. The double wooden doors are slightly recessed and have glass panels with wrought iron grilles. The access gate adjoining the right side of the front facade is set slightly back and is provided with double, pegged wooden doors. The doors are fitted with decorative hinges. The whole is crowned by a stepped gable with saddle-back cappings and a wrought iron cross finial at the top. The stepped gablette is filled with five rising arch niches, the middle one of which is rendered in white and fitted with a saint's image.

Against the rear wall of the chapel adjoins the two-storey high SOUTH BUILDING. This building is covered by a gabled roof and abuts in the west against the three-storey high west building. In the roof planes several roof lights from the fourth quarter of the twentieth century. The LEFT SIDE WALL (south wall) borders largely on the adjacent building. The detached section has a regular window arrangement. The cellared WEST BUILDING is covered by a gabled roof with an attached gabled roof over a central projection on the west side. On the ridge two chimneys. In the planes a series of originally cast-iron roof lights. The mentioned central projection of the REAR FACADE (west wall) is finished with a pointed gable and is provided at the base with a high cemented plinth. In the first storey there is a rear door under a wooden canopy. The projection contains further narrow windows under segmental arches. On the left these little windows are placed side by side in three rows, on the right in three rising rows. In the gable top four of these windows appear side by side. The recessed facade section on the left has four bays filled with wooden cross windows. The recessed facade section on the right is two window bays wide with wooden cross windows.

The irregular NORTH BUILDING has two storeys and is provided with a single-storey side aisle facing the convent courtyard. This aisle has a lean-to roof with Flemish bond tiles. The main volume has a gabled roof that adjoins with a roof plane against the west building on the west side and intersects the roof of the east building on the east side. The RIGHT SIDE WALL (north wall) borders the narrow passage that leads to the garden. On the left the facade projects slightly in line with the east building. The austere facade has some original windows.

The facades bordering the CONVENT COURTYARD are largely provided with high, rendered plinths. At the top the facades are finished with dentil lines as mentioned above. The austere inner courtyard consists mainly of a lawn, provided with some shrubs. Around the lawn runs a simple path along the facades that provides connection between the different buildings. The west wall of the EAST BUILDING bordering the inner courtyard has in two storeys seven wooden cross windows, apart from the middle bay of the first storey where a segmentally-arched portico is located. This entrance is provided with double doors with six-panel arrangement. The windows in the first storey are supported by a brick round arch, on the upper floor by a segmental arch. In the corner between the east building and the south building is a slender, polygonal stair tower with a wooden open belfry provided with pointed arches and crowned by a roof spire with incurving foot. On the spire an iron cross with weathervane. In the first storey of the corner tower a door under segmental arch, further a niche fitted with a saint's image, a four-pane window and a small shutter.

The north wall of the SOUTH BUILDING has six window bays with in the first storey a series of new, undivided pivot windows. The windows are presumed to be within original facade openings. They are supported by brick round arches with simple brickwork infill as elsewhere. In the second storey cross windows as mentioned above crowned by segmental arches.

The east wall of the WEST BUILDING bordering the convent courtyard has no cemented plinth, but does have some cellar lights with cuckoo openings. This wall has between the junctions of the north and south buildings four bays with cross windows in three storeys. In the first storey these are supported by round arches, further by segmental arches. In the first storey on the far left there is a segmentally-arched door section to the inner courtyard, with double wooden doors and a fanlight with three four-pane windows. Above the junctions of the south and north buildings there are small square little windows in the facade.

The SOUTH WALL of the north building has a low cemented plinth and contains in the projecting cloister a series of cross windows as described. In the second storey there are cross windows supported by segmental arches. The original structure of the INTERIOR has been preserved in its main lines and has retained the enclosed character with provisions for 21 sisters, as determined by the convent rule. The interior furnishings of the convent have been simplified over the course of the twentieth century, while retaining some characteristic elements. The chapel consists of a publicly accessible hall church in the east building and a sisters' choir located behind it in the south building. The ground floor of the convent contains communal spaces such as the refectory (north building) and kitchen (west building) in their original locations. The austere cloister runs along the convent courtyard in the east, north and west buildings. On the upper floor these corridors are located on the exterior side, so that the sisters' cells border on the convent courtyard. The interior is also significant for, among other things, the original staircase flights with carved stair balusters in the north and west buildings, the spiral stair in the stair tower, the spatial arrangement of the sisters' cells on the upper floor with the original panelled doors and associated profiled door frames. In the drying loft of the western building a hoist wheel for laundry. In the lay section of the chapel an original timber ceiling.

Valuation.

The CARMELITE CONVENT with adjoining GARDEN in Echt is of general importance and is of cultural-historical value as a notable expression of the development of the Roman Catholic Church in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century with regard to purpose and appearance. This is a well-recognizable example of a Carmelite convent in the Dutch-German border region, which on account of its origins and geographical location is connected with the Kulturkampf. Furthermore, the convent has particular significance because of its relation to the figure Edith Stein. The convent possesses architectural-historical value as a well and substantially intact preserved typological example of an austere Carmelite convent from the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century. This arrangement is still substantially recognizable through the presence of a cloister, the structure of sisters' cells for 21 sisters and communal rooms in their original locations. The adjoining enclosed garden with burial ground strengthens this character. The building displays an austere craftsman-traditional building style with some Neo-Gothic elements characteristic of a group of Kulturkampf convents built in this period, and is furthermore notable for aesthetic qualities in the detailing of the church facade. The austerely designed convent is an example from the work of architect Cuypers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The convent has ensemble value as a characteristic and image-defining component of the historical buildings in the centre of Echt, where it lies embedded with the adjoining garden between the plots to the west of the Bovenste Straat.