Kloster St. Clara (Bickenkloster)

The Bickenkloster, also known as Kloster St. Clara, stands at the easternmost point of Villingen’s medieval town wall near the Bickentor gate. Founded in the 1230s as a Cistercian nunnery, it became one of seven Villinger Klöster and the last to close in 2015. Originally sited outside the walls, it moved inside the city by 1255 and adopted the Franciscan rule under the name Seelenschwesternsammlung. Its golden age came under Äbtissin Ursula Haider in the late 15th century. Haider introduced stricter Clarissan observance, drawing gifts from Ravensburg’s Muntprat and Mötteli families. Their lavish Bildteppiche, including the Muntpratteppich and Dreikönigsteppich, now hang in the Franziskanermuseum. The convent flourished as a centre of mystical writing shaped by Heinrich Suso and Johannes Tauler. Visitors today find the former cloister complex now used by St.-Ursula-Schulen. The massive stone walls still mark the eastern flank of the old town, and inside the classrooms occupy spaces once filled with prayer and study. A single Steinkreuz beside the Bickenkapelle recalls the site’s first chapel.