Unterlinden monastery, Dominican convent in Colmar, France

Unterlinden monastery is a former Dominican convent in Colmar. Its church, built from 1252 to 1269 and consecrated by Albertus Magnus, has a timber-roofed nave and a choir with seven rib-vaulted bays ending in a polygonal apse. The cloister gallery has exposed wooden beams on stone corbels, red tile paving, and glazed cabinets holding white ceramic plates and vessels.

Two widows, Agnes von Mittelheim and Agnes von Hergheim, founded the convent before 1232 under the name "Unter den Linden", and it joined the Dominican order in 1245. The church, built from 1252 to 1269, was consecrated by Albertus Magnus; the cloister and remaining buildings were finished by 1289 under the mason Vollmar. The nuns left in 1792, and the buildings became a museum in 1849.

The name Unterlinden comes from the chapel of St. Johann "unter den Linden" (sub tilia), under the lime trees, which the convent took over. The monastery was founded before 1232 by the widows Agnes von Mittelheim and Agnes von Hergheim and joined the Dominican order in 1245. In 1419 thirteen sisters arrived from Schönensteinbach, and Margareth von Maasmünster became the first reforming prioress.

The museum occupies the former convent at 1, rue des Unterlinden. The cloister gallery, with its beamed ceiling and red tile floor, links the church to the exhibition rooms; the church holds the Issenheim Altarpiece. Parts of the complex date from the 13th century, so floors and thresholds are uneven in places.

The convent's "Schwesternbuch" (Book of Sisters), written in Latin around the start of the 14th century by Katharina von Gebersweiler, is held to be the oldest Latin collection of nuns' lives, predating similar German-language works. Prioress Elisabeth Kempf translated it into German in the second half of the 15th century so that sisters without Latin could read it.