Klarissenkloster Neuss

A medieval convent once stood on today’s Klarissenstraße in Neuss. Founded in 1283 by Wendelmund von Kothausen and her sons, the Poor Clares’ house was confirmed that same year by Archbishop Siegfried of Cologne. The sisters followed the Rule of Saint Clare, living in a small community near the city walls. By 1716 a new building replaced the original structures along the same street. After secularisation in the early 19th century the entire complex was demolished to widen the road. Historians have preserved key records of the convent’s life. In 1896 Karl Tücking published four original charters, including a 1617 visitation report by General Vicar Adolf Schulken. A 1788 inspection report survives in the main state archive in Düsseldorf. Tücking also noted that in 1795 the nuns held 146 morgen of land and received sixty-three malter of rye each year in rent. Only the brick-vaulted cellar now remains, used today for events. Visitors can walk along Klarissenstraße and stand above the old vaults. The site lies close to Neuss’s medieval fortifications, linking it to the town’s earlier history. Nearby stands the Katharinenaltar where one of the convent’s vicariances was founded. The surviving cellar offers a quiet space beneath the modern street, a single trace of the Poor Clares’ centuries of prayer and work.