Chiemsee - Frauenchiemsee

Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, had founded a monastery in 782 on Herrenchiemsee, but mid of the 9th century the nuns moved to smaller island Frauenchimsee, where Louis the German, son of Louis the Pious and so Charlemagne´s grandson had founded a nunnery. His daughter Irmgard (of Chiemsee) was the first Abbess here in 857.

Irmgard died in 866 and got beatified in 1928.

During the Hungarian raids of the 10th century, the monastery got looted and severely damaged. The convent recovered and the buildings got repaired or rebuilt.

Here is abbey church, a three-nave-basilica, erected probably after the Hungarian invasion, on Carolingian foundations within the 11th or 12th century. The building stayed unchanged to 15th century, when Gothic and later Baroque elements were added.

The architecture of the Romanesque portal is pretty unique. Gottfried Weber ("Die Romanik in Oberbayern") dates the "frame" into the 12th century, while the tympanum may be older. So this carvings may have been part of the Carolingian church.

Here is the tympanum. It has an "archaic style" (G. Weber). It is obvious, that the carver who did the archivolt had a higher artistic ability than the creator of the tympanum.