Pforta - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

PFORTA, or Schulpforta, formerly a Cistercian monastery dating from 1140, and now a celebrated German public school. It is in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the Saale, 2 m. S.W. of Naumburg. The remains of the monastery include the 13th century Gothic church, recently restored, the Romanesque chapel (12th century) and other buildings now used as dormitories, lecture rooms, &c. There is also the Furstenhaus, built in 1 573. Schulpforta was one of the three Filrstenschulen founded in 1543 by Maurice duke, and later elector, of Saxony, the two others being at Grimma and at Meissen. The property of the dissolved monastery provided a good revenue for the new educational foundation,which now amounts to about 15,000 a year. Free education is provided for 140 boys, the total number of pupils being 185. After being in the possession of Saxony, Pforta passed to Prussia in 1815, and since this date the school has been entirely reorganized.