14. Protestant Town Church
By order of margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden, architect Lorenzo de Sale planned the Franciscan monastery church in Rastatt. The design is attributed to the Court architect Domenico Egidio Rossi.
The War of Spanish Successions prevented a quick construction after the laying of the cornerstone in 1702, so that the church could not be dedicated to the “Immaculate Conception of Maria” until 1717. The monastery was secularized and the property was auctioned off in 1805.
The monastery church has been a Protestant Parrish church since 1807. The monastery buildings with the cloister were used by the Administrative office and later by the Rastatt District Administration as municipal offices. The Pestalozzi School Rastatt is located there today.
Children discover Rastatt:
Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm established the Franciscan monks from the Fremersberg Monastery in Baden-Baden to be the Parrish priests for the city.
A monastery with its own church was built for them. Jesuits and piarists , who are also monks, were responsible for schooling in the new residence. The Catholic clergymen were always hostile to Dr. Göckel, the margrave’s personal Protestant physician because he had a different religion. Higher taxes were always demanded from the Jews in Rastatt as well, especially after the margrave’s death in 1707. If you did not want to or could not pay, you were threatened with expulsion from Rastatt.
A particular burden on the Jewish residents was payment of a fee for usage of the plaster. Streets and footpaths in Rastatt were paved with revenue from these collected fees. Jews were later forbidden to hold their own church services in the center of town. After the abolition of the churches, during the occupation by the French troops and monasteries in 1805, the church was used as a hay and straw warehouse.
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