Franziskanerkloster St. Paul

The founding of the Franciscan monastery in Eisenach occurred around 1224, initiated by Landgravine Elisabeth. The brothers of the Franciscan Order, also known as Friars Minor or mendicant friars, founded in 1210, received a hillside plot above the landgravial Steinhof. Initially, the complex likely consisted of a small wooden building next to an already stone church. As early as 1225, the first Franciscans arrived from Erfurt, bringing relics with them. The monastery belonged to the Teutonia province of the order and later to the Saxon Franciscan Province. Late Romanesque barrel vaults and gravestones are the last witnesses of this era. In 1525, the monastery was plundered and dissolved during the "Pfaffensturm" as part of the Reformation. After the destruction of St. George's Church, the monastery church temporarily served as the city's parish church but was demolished in 1599 to obtain building material for the residential castle. The site was later transformed into a princely pleasure garden, the Charlottenburg, and from 1732, an unfinished garrison church began construction there.

The monastery was located in the city of Eisenach, an independent city in Thuringia, Germany. The original site today extends over the area of the upper Marktschule on Pfarrberg, south of the Esplanade, up to the edge of the southern city wall with the bell tower, and a hotel complex situated east of the school.

Of the original monastery buildings, only a few remnants are visible today, discovered during construction work. The Franciscan church, a Romanesque complex with a three-aisled crypt, could be partially reconstructed. The site is now partly used by the Marktschule and a hotel complex.

• Alte Residenz Eisenach (castle, approx. 96 m away)
• Stadtschloss Eisenach (castle, approx. 181 m away)
• Palais Bechtolsheim (residence, approx. 367 m away)
• Hellgrevenhof (castle, approx. 381 m away)