History
The Lorsch Abbey was founded in 764 by the Frankish Count Cancor and his mother Williswinda. The Abbey was one of the greatest centres of Carolingian art. Several Carolingian kings of Germany were buried there. The monastery was settled by Benedictines from the Gorze monastery near Metz. In a document from 885, the Abbey is mentioned as Lauressam, from which, over the course of time, came the town’s current name. In the Early and High Middle Ages, the Abbey was a powerful Imperial monastery with holdings in the nearby Odenwald, on the Bergstraße and in Rhenish Hesse, and also in Alsace and Lorraine.
In the civil war resulting from the Investiture Controversy in the 11th century, the Abbey sustained great losses in holdings to the nobility.
In the late 12th century, with the record of the old deeds, there was an attempt to reorganize the administration (Lorsch codex). Nevertheless, in 1232, Lorsch was awarded to the Archbishopric of Mainz and newly settled by Premonstratensians. Thereafter, Mainz and the Electorate of the Palatinate found themselves at odds over who should hold the Vogt rights. Of the Carolingian Benedictine abbey, which in parts has been unearthed, the gatehall (from about 800) has been preserved. It is today a UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site.
See also: Lorsch codex, Franconia, Ripuarian Franks, Electoral Mainz, Electorate of the Palatinate
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