St. Andreas

The Franciscan monastery of St Andreas stands in Halberstadt, a town that was once a bishop’s seat from 804 to 1648. Founded around 1223, it is one of the earliest Franciscan houses in Germany and still kept its church after the Reformation. The monastery was closed in 1814 during the secularisation, but the friars returned in 1920 and stayed until 2020. Brother Rodeger, a friend of St Elizabeth of Thuringia, became its first guardian. The counts of Reinstein gave land and built the Gothic hall church dedicated to St Andrew, where the founder was buried in 1314. The monastery mattered because it hosted provincial chapters of the Saxony Franciscans in the 13th century. It ran an ordination school and a small farm at Wernigerode to collect alms. In the 15th century a special chapel was added for the Anna guild, and the friars cared for a school and fed poor children. After the Reformation the church was shared with the Protestant congregation from 1567. By 1803 the community numbered thirty-five friars, yet the state took the buildings in 1814. The church remained as the parish church, served by Franciscans until 1837. Today the visitor sees the rebuilt choir and the 1950s monastery with windows by Charles Crodel. The church’s Gothic vaults and the small side chapel still stand. The cloister walks and the refectory are part of the present complex. Outside, the street still carries the old name ‘Bei den Barfüßern’. The site keeps the memory of six centuries of Franciscan life in the Harz region.