Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch Abbey
www.kloster-lorsch.de; Tel. +49 (0)6251 86 92 00; adult/child €6/4; h10am-5pm Tue-Sun, Tours hourly 11am-4pm Tue-Sun Mar-Oct, Sat & Sun Nov-Feb
Travel Hack
Do take the guided English tour which also gives an opportunity to go to the first floor of the Kings Hall
Lorsch Abbey (Abbey and Altenmünster) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. It is one of the oldest completely preserved stone buildings in Germany from the post-Roman period and today gives an impression of Carolingian architecture. Of the complex itself, only the King's Hall, the basilica fragment and parts of the monastery wall are preserved today.
The most famous building at the Lorsch Abbey is the ‘Königshalle’ (King’s Hall). With its well-preserved, festive red-and-white stone facade rising above three very Roman-looking arches, the Torve probably looks like a gatehouse. Its purpose is not known. Current research points to this being a reception building for visiting rulers, but there is also discussion about it having been used as a courtroom for trials.There are high quality painting inside the upper floor of the building.
History
In the middle ages, you had many wealthy families setup small monasteries to “seek favour” with the Church and for the purpose of family burial . There were hundreds established all across but this one setup by the Robertian family grew in size due to a host of “favours” which followed. It was given to the Bishop of Metz who was a relative of the family. The Bishop seemed to have plans to expand this monastery and one of the ways to get more people to visit was to get relics across so that people nearby could make pilgrimage and visit the monastery. He had ties with the papal legate and was able to get the remains of St. Nazarius from Rome to the monastery. This was a huge deal back in the day since most of the relics were within Rome and this was the first set of relics available close to home.
After this the abbey received more pilgrims and thus more donations where new church began to be built. The abbot could also get patronage from Charlemagne who took the abbey under his protection and visited it during this time.
It later grew in size and had a huge library containing several texts. One of the important documents is the Lorsch Codex which was the oldest land register in the region
My impressions
Although historically important, there are very few remaining sites which are left and compared to the rest of the sites, are not very impressive. I would recommend to go only if you have an interest in the city although the area around is very pretty and picturesque.
What strikes me is that a couple of favours around 1300 years ago manage to make the place important for ages to come so that you have people like me travelling all the way.
The other interesting part is how common it was to entrust land records and other records to the monastery rather than the local king/agent. I saw this in India as well where you would have land records being stored on the temple or even inscribed on the walls.
References and Links
https://kloster.lorsch.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/wekl_flyer_unesco_blauer_flyer_engl.pdf
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https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/515
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Lorsch