Müstair - St. Johann

Many churches, chapels and abbeys all over continental Europe claim to be founded by Charlemagne.

Saint John Abbey in the village of Müstair (= monasterium) is - most likely - founded in deed by Charlemagne or a bishop under Charles´ order around 774. At that time Charlemagne fought war against the Langobards in Northern Italy and needed save and secure passes over the Alps for his army. Fortified monasteries played an important role in this strategy.

Dendrochronological surveys found out, that some of the beams used for the construction cut around 775, what is, when Charlemagne´s soldiers conquered the Lombardy.

The "Benediktinerinnenkloster St. Johann", today still a Benedictine nunnery, is since 1983 a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Most spectacular is the interior of the convent´s church, that meanwhile serves the parish. It was constructed in Carolingian times, but remodelled later, when it got a late Gothic vaulted ceiling.

Around 1200 all the walls of the church and the apses were covered with Romanesque frescoes. 300 years later, they seemed "old fashioned" - and the walls got whitened. End of the 19th century art historians discovered not only the fresco paintings from 1200, there were wall paintings even from the Carolingian times, dating back to 800.

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This statue of Charlemagne in the abbey church is the oldest monumental, "life size" sculpture of Emperor Charles. He is crowned, holds the globus cruciger (= "cross-bearing orb") and the sceptre, that looks a bit like a fleur-de-lis.