St. Laurentius priory church

Particularly worth seeing: the apse with the stained glass window from the 13th century, epitaph altar from the 17th century, showing the Three Kings, Baroque pulpit and confessional chairs from the former monastery church from the county of Schmallenberg, Romanesque crucifix on the right-hand side aisle next to the baptism font, count’s tomb, old monastery building with cloisters and Romanesque wall friezes.

During the “Arnsberg exile” of the Cologne cathedral treasure (1794-1803), the relics of the Holy Three Kings were housed here on a temporary basis.

Arnsberg was first mentioned in around 800 in the Carolingian “Urbanen” records made by the abbey of Werden near Essen. During the 11th century, it was promoted to the status of county, and later became the capital city of the Duchy of Westphalia.

The monastery of Wedinghausen, which was founded in 1170 by Count Heinrich I after the fratricide of his brother is now only preserved in part. The cloister wing next to the parish church with its impressive painting, the chapter house, the structure of which has been altered, with the count’s chapel and the simple priory are what remains of the former large-scale Premonstratensian abbey at Wedinghausen.

The monastery took on historical significance through the storage of the Cologne cathedral treasure there, including the shrine of the Three Kings, from 1794 - 1803.

For more on Kloster Wedinghausen monastery and the St. Laurentius parish church, see www.kloster-wedinghausen.de.

The “St. Georg” town chapel by the bell tower, which was first officially recorded and consecrated in 1323, belongs to today’s priory parish, which as has been explained above is the oldest congregation in Arnsberg and in the pastoral association. It was never an independent parish church, but was looked after by the Conventuals of the Kloster Wedinghausen monastery.

The neo-Gothic Kreuzbergkapelle (Calvary hill chapel), consecrated in 1868 as the “Holiest Virgin of the Seven Sorrows” with the Way of the Cross and the “St. Joseph” chapel in the district of Arnsberg-Uentrop also belong to the St. Laurentius priory.

At the beginning of 2011, the priory congregation, including the chapel congregation of Uentrop, amounted to 2,300 members. The clergy of the priory congregation, above all Prior Hubertus Böttcher, the church council and the parish committee, are spending a great deal of time, with a high level of personal commitment, on further developing the congregation and the work of the parish.

As well as school masses and masses to mark particular occasions and needs, masses are held regularly on almost all days of the week, and on Sundays and public holidays. It should be stressed that regularly on Sunday evenings, an evening mass is celebrated in the priory church for all parishes.

The parish catchment area is the old town within the Ruhr loop, the Ruhrstrasse road up to the junction with Grimmestrasse, the Seltersberg, Muffrika up to the viaduct and the district of Uentrop.

The catchment area of the priory congregation includes the Mariengymnasium school, which is now run by the Archbishop of Paderborn and which is state-approved, with the Marienkapelle chapel, threatened with demolition, which has been transferred to the newly founded “Trägerverein Marienkapelle Arnsberg e.V.” support association.

The priory congregation is involved in the decision-making body of the Marienhospital in Arnsberg.