Kapuziner Abbey

The Capuchin Monastery of Koblenz (Latin: Conventus Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum Confluentiae) was a monastery in Koblenz, operated by Capuchin friars from 1627–2008 with interruptions. The monastery in the Ehrenbreitstein district was the seat of the provincial administration of the Rhenish-Westphalian Order Province from 1908–2007. The Baroque church of St. Francis belongs to the monastery complex.

At the personal request of the Trier Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern, the Capuchins settled in Ehrenbreitstein in 1627. On October 18, 1628, the foundation stone for the construction of a monastery was laid. The building was completed in 1629 and consecrated to the Apostles Philip and James as patron saints.

During the Thirty Years' War, Ehrenbreitstein, including the Capuchin monastery, was devastated in 1636 due to fierce fighting for the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress located above the city. Reconstruction took place in 1655 under Elector Karl Kaspar von der Leyen. A year later, under Auxiliary Bishop Otto Johann Theodor von Senheim (1633–1662), the monastery received the patron saints Francis of Assisi, Charles Borromeo, and Apostle Philip.

After the conquest by French revolutionary troops and the subsequent secularization of church and monastery, the Capuchin properties initially passed to Nassau-Weilburg in 1803, and later to the Duchy of Nassau. The monastery was evacuated on February 16, 1813, and its interior sold. Prussia finally took over the monastery in 1815 as part of its Rhine Province and established a train depot and barracks in the monastery garden. The monastery buildings, including the cloister, were largely demolished in 1860. The Capuchins returned to their monastery in Ehrenbreitstein on June 29, 1861, and settled in the remaining buildings. In 1865, Count Hermann von der Schulenburg (1829–1865), formerly a Prussian officer, later Father Ludovikus OFMCap, died here. During the Kulturkampf, the Capuchins had to leave the monastery again from 1875 to 1887. Afterwards, further buildings were purchased for monastery use.

The Capuchin monastery became the seat of the provincial administration of the Rhenish-Westphalian Order Province in 1908. In 1930, the Capuchins purchased the neighboring Konradhaus and established an apprentice home there for their youth welfare institution, Seraphisches Liebeswerk. A connecting wing was built between the Konradhaus and the Capuchin monastery, above whose portal a figure of Konrad von Parzham still stands today. During an air raid on Koblenz on September 25, 1944, the monastery was hit by an aerial mine and the roof was damaged. After the destruction of the Holy Cross Church in the air raid of December 31, 1944, the Ehrenbreitstein parish used the monastery church for its services. With the completion of a new building in 1964, the community moved into the new church building. Due to its proximity to the Rhine, the monastery was flooded by high water in 1740, 1920, 1926, 1970, 1993, and 1995.

The provincial administration of the Rhenish-Westphalian Order Province moved to Frankfurt am Main in 2007. The last Capuchins left the monastery in Ehrenbreitstein at the end of September 2008. Since May 2009, the monastery church has served as the parish church for the Holy Cross parish. The Holy Cross Church has been used only for cultural purposes since 2010.