monasteries of begging orders, monastery of Sopron
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The begging orders founded in the 13th century - the Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites - were the most popular monastic orders of the 14th century. They built their monasteries mainly in the cities, usually at the edge of the settlement, near the slums. Their main tasks were to take care of the poor and fight against heresy. In concert with these, they lived in poverty, and avoided pomp in their architecture, too. It was important for them to preach to crowds, so their churches were huge, unbroken inner spaces, where the preacher could address many people. Part of the offices were performed while standing in the pews of the long chancel of the church. As thay had to ring the bells during these offices, the bell tower was built next to the chancel. The scene of other offices was the chapter room - used as a chapel. The large sacrity, firnished as a chapel, played a very important role at the Franciscans. The oratory was usually placed on the second floor of this. They spent a lot of time studying, schools also joined their centers. The monks lived in separate cells, in contrast with the common dormitories of earlier orders.
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the Franciscan monastery of Sopron
The Franciscan monks of Sopron were first mentioned in sources in 1278. The construction of their monastery started in the last third of the 13th century in the main square of the city. First the chancel was made, then around 1300 the square longitudinal house - for the time being without pillars and vaults - with western gates and a chancel partitioner with archades in front of the triumphal arch. In the cloister attached to the southern side of the church a two-pillar chapter hall was built around the 1330s, which included an eastern chapel originally. The Geissel family had a tower built to the northern side of the nave in the last quarter of the 14th century. It was decorated with their own coat-of-arms with a goat. Though the age of the four pillars and the vault of the longitudinal house is dubious, the Geissel coat-of-arms on one of the pillars refers to the fact that they must be as old as the tower.
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