| The "Barmherzige Schwestern" are a catholic order dedicated to caring for the sick and aged. The order runs several care facilities in Austria and abroad, one of which can be found in Salzburg City - the Mutterhaus. It can be found right by the left shore of the Salzach.
The Barmherzige Schwestern saw their heyday in the second half of the 19th century. The first nuns of the order arrived in Salzburg in 1851, where they worked in a private hospital of a local optometrist. One year later, they also started to run a training facility for female servants and maids at the Bruderhaus in the Linzergasse. At that time, the Mutterhaus was still in the Pongau community of Schwarzach. Only when the house there became to small, the convent decided to move to Salzburg.
A Medieval building was purchased and extended; it was linked up with a garden and a Historicist church was built. The current Mutterhaus was consecrated alongside with the church in 1863. Today, the Mutterhaus used as a training facility for nurses; the convent operates a home for the age; and at the original Salzburg site at Schwarzach, the still work at the hospital and run a home for disabled people. |