Maria Laach Abbey

The monastery "Abbatia ad Lacum" was founded in 1093 on the shores of a lake (lacum). It was a priory of Affligem Abbey (Belgium) first, but since 1138 was an independent Benedictian abbey. The erection of the monastery, following the "Sankt Galler Klosterplan" ("Plan of Saint Gall") started, when the first monks settled here. To complete the church took more than 200 years. Even after the consecration, many parts were added or altered.

The abbey was an intellectual hub in the 12th/13th century, but like many other convents declined later. It joined the Bursfelde Congregation, a reform movement originating from the Bursfelde Abbey in the valley of the Weser river. The monastery existed upto the secularisation. The buildings and all the abbey´s possessions became property of the French state. The inventary was auctioned. After the Congress of Vienna the ownership of the empty buildings went to the Prussian State, who sold it. Within the 1860s it was acquired by the "Society of Jesus". The "Kulturkampf", a row between the Prussian government and the Roman Catholic administration, ended that episode and in 1992 the Benedictines returned. They could do with the support of Wilhelm II, as the church itself was still owned by the Prussian state. Since then many restaurations and renovations have taken place, to "purify" the buildings - and "recreate" the Romanesque style.

A detail from the right side of the narthex facade. This differs clearly from the left side just seen. While on the left the foliage was populated, here the foliage is alive. Two "Green Men" so nicely and smoothly carved, that they could be part of an art nouveau villa in Paris or Riga! More green creatures are at the corners. To the left, a bird-chimera.

According to information from the local museum, the stones used for these carvings by an anonymous master, named "Samsonmeister" by art historians, are "coralline limestones", brought to this secluded place from France.