Dominikanerkloster

The Dominikanerkloster in Freiburg once stood in the Unterlinden quarter beside the city wall. Founded in the 13th century, it belonged to the Dominican order of preaching friars who lived by begging and taught theology. Albertus Magnus served as reader here in the late 1230s, while the high choir was completed in 1282. The monastery flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries, hosting scholars and princes alike. In 1492 King Maximilian I lodged here during a diet of the empire. After the order’s dissolution in 1794 the site passed to the university, whose survey produced the Rinderle plan. Later parts were demolished or repurposed, and only fragments survived the bombing of 1944. Today a small bronze statue of Albertus Magnus marks the former cloister gate on the Sparkasse building. Archaeologists uncovered foundations and burials during 21st-century excavations. The quiet square above them carries no trace of the high choir or the long-vanished Vincentiushaus, yet the place still recalls a centre of medieval learning and piety.