Modern protection for sacred walls

Franciscan monastery, Schwäbisch Gmünd

In the monastery of the Franciscan women of eternal worship at Schwäbisch Gmünd (Kloster der Franziskanerinnen der ewigen Anbetung zu Schwäbisch Gmünd e.V.) keys were lost time and again. This ultimately led to the decision to replace the old mechanical locking system with the innovative blueSmart electronic access control system from Winkhaus.

The monastery, which was moved into around twenty years ago, is the youngest in Europe. That’s why the Franciscan women are open to new technologies. There were a wide variety of systems for securing the entrances and doors. The question was: What does a locking system that fits into a monastery need to do? It took a few weeks to find out and choose the right solution. 18 sisters currently live in the monastery, which serves as a retirement home. They were therefore looking for a system that was easy to use for all age groups.
The architecture of the monastery complex is of simple aesthetics, to which the locking components should be visually subordinated. As not only the sisters but also overnight guests, church service visitors, seminar participants as well as patients and staff of the newly constructed hospice building regularly enter and leave here, freedom of movement and, for example, the safe storage of medicines were important aspects. In addition, it was necessary to integrate existing third-party systems such as time recording for personnel. After all, the entire system should be easy to manage.

The wish list was full of complex tasks. Four access control systems were shortlisted and put to the test. The Winkhaus blueSmart electronic access control system was the only system that met all the requirements.
The virtual network of blueSmart works offline and wirelessly, so that no time-consuming cabling was necessary. This technology can be used to create locking systems with up to 196,000 components. For the sisters and employees of the monastery, this means that they only need one key for all authorised doors, while the system automatically ensures that the external entrances are reliably locked and locking authorisations can be quickly blocked in the event of loss.