Building a Center of Pilgrimage : St. Elisabethkirche in Marburg and Indulgence in the Thirteenth Century

application/pdfIn medieval Europe, the building of a pilgrimage center often necessitated a campaign to raise funds to finance its construction, and it was supported by the church and secular authorities. Thus, pilgrimages are a classic problem in politics and economy. Nevertheless, a growing interest in the construction of sacred spaces (the so-called inecclessiament) has prompted a need to consider this issue from the perspective of spirituality. This study examined the dynamics that were involved in the construction of a pilgrimage center, St. Elisabethkirche, in thirteenth-century Marburg, Germany, which had been compared to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. As one of the oldest Gothic churches in Germany, St. Elisabethkirche was built by the Teutonic Order in the late thirteenth century against much financial and political difficulties. The building process was examined based on two sources. First, indulgence letters revealed that the papal curia was keener on the project of the Teutonic Order than the Archbishop of Mainz. Second, in response to the indulgence letters, donation charters revealed that more women donated their property to the Teutonic Order, and this observation was also made in the neighboring areas of Marburg. Consequently, these findings implied that visibility was an important factor that contributed to the construction of religious spaces.departmental bulletin pape