Kapuzinerkloster Bensheim

The Capuchin Monastery in Bensheim was founded around 1630, during a period of re-Catholicization amidst the Thirty Years' War. The order received permission to build in 1630 but had to flee from the Swedes as early as 1631. After their return in 1649, the Capuchins acquired a plot of land and laid the cornerstone for the monastery church in 1653; construction was completed in 1655. In the course of secularization, the monastery was dissolved in 1802 and became property of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. Between 1821 and 1911, the complex served as a Catholic teacher training college, undergoing extensive reconstruction and expansion. In 1919, the Capuchin order repurchased the monastery to establish a missionary school, the Fidelis College. During World War II, the monastery was confiscated and severely damaged by aerial bombs in 1945. The friars initiated reconstruction, and by 1947, services could again be held in the newly built church. Since 1985, the monastery has been continued by Franciscans of the Upper Silesian Franciscan Province.

The monastery is located in Bensheim, a town on the Bergstraße in the federal state of Hesse, Germany.

The rebuilt parts of the monastery largely reflect the form of the original structures. The church is a simple plastered building with a gable roof and a round window in the gable wall. Inside, there is a hall with a flat wooden ceiling, illuminated by tall arched windows. A side aisle is separated by low basket arches on wide pillars, and the choir is set back. An organ loft is situated above the entrance. The residential and college buildings are two-story structures with hip roofs and simple square or upright window openings. The plastered core buildings enclose a cloister made of red sandstone with paired, segmental arched window and door openings, supported in the middle by polygonal columns. A large wooden crucifix from 1760 adorns the entrance area. An elevated forecourt with staircases lies in front of the church, and to its east, a bell tower made of yellow sandstone, erected in the 1960s.

• Adelshof Gemminger Hof (manor house, approx. 94 m away)
• Adelshof Helmstädter Hof (manor house, approx. 154 m away)
• Hohenecker Hof (manor house, approx. 159 m away)
• Dalberger Hof (manor house, approx. 183 m away)