St Catharine's Convent

The convent of St. Katharina was founded in 1243 in the Augsburg suburb of Am Gries, with Christina von Wellenburg generally recognized as its founder. Initially under the spiritual guidance of the Dominican convent of St. Magdalena, the community moved into the city in 1251. From 1349, the convent was under the protection of the Imperial City of Augsburg and gained Augsburg citizenship in 1381. It received support from Swabian nobility and later from Augsburg patrician families. Between 1498 and 1503, the second convent building was erected based on designs by Burkhart Engelberg. During this period, artists such as Hans Burgkmair and Hans Holbein the Elder created the Basilica Cycle for the chapter house. Around 1500, Hans Holbein also designed a St. Catherine altar and a St. Sebastian altar for the convent. The two-aisled Basilica of St. Katharina was completed in 1516/17. During the Reformation, the church was closed by the city council in 1534, and the convent was divided. After the Thirty Years' War, the convent experienced a second period of prosperity, and the church was baroqueized in 1670. The nun Dominika Erhardt compiled an extensive chronicle of the convent in 1752/53. The convent was dissolved in 1802 as part of the secularization, and the remaining nuns had to vacate it in 1807.

The former Dominican convent of St. Katharina is situated in the city of Augsburg in Bavaria, Germany, at an elevation of approximately 494 m above sea level. The buildings are located on Katharinengasse and Hallstraße.

After its dissolution, the former convent complex was used as a warehouse for an extended period. From 1834, the Royal Polytechnic School and a trade school occupied parts of the convent buildings. Since 1835, the former convent church has served as the State Gallery of Old German Masters, a branch of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. Today, the buildings house the Holbein-Gymnasium.

• Schaezler Palais (residence, approx. 158 m away)
• Fugger Residenz (residence, approx. 178 m away)
• Kloster Sankt Ulrich und Afra (sacred building, approx. 437 m away)
• Burggrafenturm (castle, approx. 802 m away)