Ursulinenklooster (Ursuline Convent), Maastricht

Ursulinenklooster is a former convent of the Ursuline sisters of the Roman Union in Maastricht. The complex comprises the actual convent building, a chapel and various schools, including several national and municipal monuments.

The convent itself was built from 1890 by architect Johannes Kayser; the design was influenced by German Gothic architecture. The Ursuline chapel – a three-aisled building with a five-sided closed presbytery – was inaugurated In 1892.

On its roof is a wooden ridge turret with a spire, covered in copper. The side elevations are supported by buttresses and flying buttresses, between which there are lancet windows. The low side aisle on the Capucijnenstraat side has remarkable round- and pointed-arch windows. These form a gradual transition to the adjacent school building in Neo-Romanesque style. The walls are decorated with glazed bricks and ornamental masonry. The short sides of the nave show the stepped gables, typical of Kayser's oeuvre.

The chapel's interior is still largely preserved in its original condition. Among its special features are: the stained-glass windows depicting episodes from the life of Saint Ursula of Cologne; the main marble altar and the communion rail by Leo Brom; plus the organ, from about 1870, created by the Pereboom & Leijser firm.

Today the convent houses the De Merici residential and care center for people with mental disabilities.

As for the chapel, it is home to the Sjoen Limburg museum, showcasing, among other exhibits, scale models of architecture illustrative of the cultural history of Limburg. There are also old photos of the convent, the Ursuline schools, the boarding school and the surroundings of the Grote Gracht.