Eberbach Abbey - Buildings

Buildings

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 Gothic, 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 containing 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.