Katharinenkloster

The Katharinenkloster in Bremen preserves traces of a Dominican monastery founded in 1253. Its Gothic church was dedicated to Saint Catherine. The complex became Germany’s second Dominican monastery, after Frankfurt, and its church was consecrated in 1285. The complex received an expansion in 1400. The Reformation closed the monastery in 1528, after which the premises housed Schola Bremensis, a grammar school. The Bibliotheca Bremensis later occupied the site. The church then served as Bremen’s arsenal, hosted the historical museum from 1900 to 1905, and became a storehouse. War damage led to demolition in 1960. Today, a multi-storey car park designed by Carsten Schröck contains visible remnants of the refectory, cloister, and chapter room. Address 7, Katharinenklosterhof, marks the former Refectorium. An information plaque in Katharinenpassage records this history, while the passage itself dates from 1984. These traces connect Bremen’s present with its Dominican past.