Hildegard_von_Bingen_englisch

The Rupertsberg
nave and the aisles were as follows: length 30 m, width of the nave
7 m and of the aisles 4,35 m each. The side-wall with view to the
Nahe, the eastern choir, had a semi-circular apse which was crowned
by a gable. The nave was flanked by two big towers. The church had
no transepts; the apses of the aisles were fitted into the towers.
Documents mention a vault-like crypt, the place where the relics of
St. Rupertus and his mother Berta were kept. This crypt should also
become the burial place for St. Hildegard. It was located – as was
usual in all churches – underneath the chancel. An engraving by
Meissner created around 1620, twelve years before the destruction
of the monastery by the Swedes, shows the church surrounded by
numerous high and low residential and farm buildings. The whole
area of the convent was enclosed by a ring-wall. About the arrangement
of the various buildings the following can be traced: from the
southern aisle one could reach, taking a few steps down, the cloister
below. Around the cloister the prelate’s house, the buildings of the
convent, the dormitory, the Chapter house and the convent school
were located. Southwest of the cloister, there was the churchyard
with the chapel of St. Michael. A few additional buildings in the
convent area are mentioned in some documents, as were the Summer
house, the house of the provost with the ‘garden for the Father’,
the guest house. In the same area there was also the convent garden,
of which two acres were layed out as vineyard. There were also a
house for the servants and farm buildings. From the latter ones inside
the convent walls a gate was leading to Weiler, where the dairyfarm
of the convent was situated. Built into the convent wall, thus
accessible from both sides, there was the chapel of St. Nikolaus; and
near this chapel the convent gate with the portress’s lodge.
St. Hildegard’s convent on the Rupertsberg was not quite a representative
construction, based on a complete architectonic idea. Wibert
of Gembloux’s description from the year 1177 is likely to come
close to reality: “This convent has not been founded by an emperor or
bishop, a mighty or a rich man of this world, but by a poor and weak
woman, a newcomer in this region. Within a short time, only 27 years,
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