Adam from Allendorf and Maria Specht from Bubenheim

Husband and wife (* before 1475 - † 1518)

Compared to the other gravestones, the epitaph for Adam from Allendorf and his wife looks unusual, as it shows both of them kneeling in prayer. Adam from Allendorf was born before 1475 as the son of Kraft from Allendorf and Elisabeth Wolf from Sponheim. In 1501 he married Maria, daughter of Diether Specht from Bubenheim and Katherina Buches from Staden. These four coats of arms thus represent the ancestry of the couple, whose burial place was originally in front of the Annen Altar.

Accordingly, the veneration of St. Anne the Third is the central motif. The mother of Maria - depicted with her daughter and the infant Christ (hence the figure of St. Anne the Third) - occupies the upper half of the tomb. The decision for the unusual form on a crescent moon and with a halo may have been an expression of the patrons' personal design intentions. In any case, there is evidence of widespread veneration of St. Anne in pre-Reformation times. In Eberbach, the cult of St. Anne also had its own tradition, as a finger relic of the saint was kept in the church treasury. The quality is impressive: the first traces of the Renaissance can be seen in the work of art, which is otherwise dominated by the late Gothic period and can be attributed to the work of the Mainz master Peter Schro. It was probably created shortly after Allendorf's death.

Source: German Inscriptions Online (43, no. 376), Academy of Sciences Mainz

Image of the tomb: Michael Leukel

Tombstones

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