Kloster Eberbach, Germany

We actually visited the monastery along with our German class.  Our instructor, Linda Schmidt, organized a tour for us, and we visited both the monastery and a nearby winery.

We started at the monestary, which was interesting.  I honestly don't remember many of the details.  There were meeting halls, a huge courtyard, and a bunch of ther connected buildings.  The rooms were very plain and simple, as was demanded by their way of life.

The below is an abbreviated description of the history of the abby from Wikipedia.


"Kloster Eberbach was founded in 1136 by Bernard of Clairvaux as the first Cistercian monastery on the east bank of the Rhine[...]



Eberbach soon became one of the largest and most active monasteries of Germany. [...] At its height in the 12th and 13th centuries, the population is estimated to have been about 100 monks and over 200 lay brothers.

Eberbach Abbey was also very successful economically, principally as a result of profits from the cultivation of vineyards and the production of wine. At least 14 members of the family of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen were buried in the church. Among them was Count Johann IV of Katzenelnbogen, who was the first to plant Riesling vines, in a new vineyard in the nearby village of Rüsselsheim [...]

In about 1525 it is said that in the abbey there was an enormous wine barrel with a volume of between ca. 50,000 and 100,000 litres, which in the German Peasants' War of 1525 was heavily used by rebels from the Rheingau, who were encamped just below the monastery.

The abbey suffered severe damage during the Thirty Years' War, beginning with the attack of the Swedish army in 1631. Many valuable items from the church and the library were looted, and the monks were forced to flee, of whom only 20 returned in 1635 to begin a laborious reconstruction.

The 18th century however was a period of great economic success: surviving accounts show that the abbey profits were regularly invested on the Frankfurt money market.

The final decline set in with the French Revolution. After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss the abbey was dissolved on 18 September 1803 and with its assets and territory became the property of Prince Friedrich Augustus of Nassau-Usingen"

And more on the buildings, again thanks to Wikipedia:

"The buildings form one of the most impressive monastic sites in Germany, preserving structures of the highest quality from the Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque periods. A list of goods, the "Oculus Memoriae", survives from as early as the year 1211, giving information on the possessions and premises of the abbey complex.

The existing buildings include:

• The abbey church, a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with transept, containing the tombs of some of the Archbishops of Mainz;
• The cloisters, the south side of which is  othic, the north side partly Gothic and partly Romanesque and the remainder a 19th century restoration;
• The Chapter Room, a late Gothic square room with a central pillar, restored with ceiling and wall paintings;
• The Fraternei, an early Gothic room with heavy vaulting, used since the Middle Ages as a wine cellar. It is also known as the Cabinetkeller, which is the origin of the use of the term Kabinett as a quality description of German wine;
• The Dormitorium (dormitory), an early Gothic room about 70 metres long  ontaining vaulting and short columns with sculptured capitals, and one of the few such rooms of this size and quality remaining in Europe;
• The north wing, refurbished in the 18th century and containing the refectory, with a Baroque stucco ceiling by Daniel Schenk. It replaced the earlier Gothic refectory to the north;
• The west wing, accommodating the library, where the abbey museum was set up in 1995. This contains inter alia the oldest surviving Cistercian glass window in Germany (of about 1180), the original capitals from the cloisters, now replaced by modern replicas, various sculptures, portraits of Bernard of Clairvaux and Baroque furnishings;
• In a separate building to the west of the monastic quarters, the "Converts' Building" or "Lay-Brothers' Building", containing the lay-brothers' refectory (45 metres long) and the Laiendormitorium (lay-brothers' dormitory) (at over 80 metres long, the largest surviving Romanesque secular room in Europe), and attached to it a Romanesque wine-cellar and various small domestic buildings from the 17th century;
• Beyond the monastic precincts to the east, the hospital, service buildings and 18th and 19th century wine cellars."

Wine tasting was somewhat more fun.  Everyone was greeted with a class of champagne and we went in to see the tools used for wine making and watched a video about it.  then we got to taste the wines (well, Nate did).  They had brötchen and grape juice too.

Dinner was terrible.  Ther ewas such a large group that the menu was limited and it was extremely expensive.  

All in all though, it was still a good day.