The women’s convents of Mariä Verkündigung (1237) and St. Katharina (1297) in the village of Adelhausen, along with St. Agnes and St. Magdalena, located south of the Dreisam River, ranked among Freiburg’s most important monastic institutions. The four convents were centers of Christian mysticism during the Middle Ages and the search for a direct experience of the divine through meditation.
After their destruction, a new Baroque building known as the "Adelhauser Kloster" was erected in 1687 under the direction of the French fortress engineer Jean La Douze in Freiburg’s “Schneckenvorstadt” district. The convent complex with four wings is arranged around a square interior courtyard, whose structure and much of its furnishings have been very well preserved.
After Kaiser Joseph II abolished the cloisters in 1786, the convent continued as the "Weibliches Lehr- und Erziehungsinstitut" (Female Educational and Etiquette Institute). Even after the city's acquisition of the building some 80 years later, it was still used as a girl’s school into the twentieth century.
The historic structure is quite interesting and worth a visit. Discover new art on old walls in the Museum of Contemporary Art or marvel at the sumptuous Baroque altar of the cloister church.
