St. Nikolaus-Hospital (Cusanus Foundation)

Founded by Nikolaus von Kues in 1465, the hospital still serves as a stylish retirement home for senior citizens today.

In 1465 Nikolaus von Kues set up and donated to his home town this hospital capable of accommodating 33 needly men from all walks of life.
A touch of timeless architecture and harmonious beauty blows around the visitor in the medieval cloister. The Gothic chapel is one of the most beautiful sacral buildings in the region. The library is filled with a wealth of manuscript collections from the 9th to 15th centuries and is today one of the most valuable private manuscript collections in the world.

Precious library   
As a special treasure, the hospital houses the library of Nikolaus of Kues. It is considered one of the most precious private libraries in the world, since all the wealth of manuscripts and incunabula that the great humanist possessed have been preserved in it. All fields of knowledge are represented: Philosophy, theology, mysticism, ecclesiastical and secular law, geography and history, medicine and astronomy.

Impressive chapel
The chapel is an important Gothic building.
It has two parts: the lay room of a column with 12 arches bearing the building: a symbol that the church is founded on Christ as a column and the 12 apostles. In the other part, the choir room, stands the large winged altar depicting the Passion and Death of Christ and the image of the founder, Nikolaus of Kues, on the trunk of the cross. The heart of the founder rests in a lead capsule under a brass plate in the chancel. Remarkable in the chapel are the mural depicting the Last Judgement and the tomb slab depicting the founder's sister.

Cusanus Year
In 1464, in the Umbrian bishopric of Todi, the most famous son of the Middle Moselle, Nikolaus Cusanus, died.
To mark this occasion, a series of events will take place in his Moselle-Franconian home town of Bernkastel-Kues, the local St. Nikolaus Hospital/Cusanusstift, the Institute for Cusanus Research in Trier and all other institutions associated with the life and work of St. Nicholas of Kues in the region, such as B. the Kueser Akademie für europäische Geistesgeschichte or the Akademie Kues - Seniorenakademie und Begegnungsstätte in Bernkastel-Kues. The spectrum of events ranges from lectures, symposia, readings, exhibitions, book presentations and study days to film screenings and travels in the footsteps of Nicholas von Kues.