Eberbach

History

A Cistercian monastery close to Eltville-Rheingau (formerly in the archdiocese of Mainz). In the affiliation of Clairvaux. The founding community settled in 1135 in an existing monastic complex first found in about 1116. Eberbach began to develop in a major way almost at once. As early as 1142 it founded its first daughter house at Schoenau, followed by Otterberg in 1144-5 and by Val Dieu in 1155. This flowering came to an abrupt halt in about 1160 due to the schism and to the struggle between Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederich I Barbarossa. Abbot Eberard fled with a number of his brethren to the abbey of Tre Fontane just outside Rome, while other monks sought refuge in the abbeys that order owned in France. Eberbach had a flourishing economy: along with farming and cattle raising, the abbey’s wine estate in the Rhine valley represented its most profitable enterprise from a financial standpoint. The monastery engaged in a big way in the wine trade along the Rhine, using its own flett and enjoying customs privileges granted by the king. The farm that the monastery owned in Cologne constituted the most important focal point for the storage and distribution of the abbey’s highly prized wines right up to the middle of the 16th century. The famous Eberbach barrel (Eberbacher Fass) containing somewhere in the region of 100,000 litres was built around 1500. Humanist Vincenzo Ossepeo sang its praises in classic verse, comparing it to the wonders of the ancient world. Decay set in fairly rapidly, followed by major destruction in the course of the Peasant War (1523), but also and above all at the hand of Swedish and Hessian troops during the 30 Years War (1631). The community was able to return to the monastery only in 1635. A new flowering was abruptly brought to an end in the 18th century by the French Revolutionary wars and the abbey was suppressed in 1803. The buildings were turned into a lunatic asylum, then into a prison, and finally into a convalescent home for the military. The abbey’s vast vineyards are currently owned by the State of Hesse.

Eberbach constitutes one of Germany’s best preserved medieval monastic complexes. The entire monastic complex is surrounded by a wall some 1,100 mt long and five mt. high (12th-13th centuries). It possesses a particularly active scriptorium. The library, located off the north cloister walk, was sacked and almost entirely destroyed by Hessian and Swedish troops in 1631. Manuscripts from Eberbach can be found today in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Oxford and London.

The romanesque church (based on Clairvaux II) was probably designed by Achard of Clairvaux and begun in 1145. In the wake of the schism, building was suspended between 1160 and 1170. A new plan provided for a groin vault to replace the more traditional Burgundian barrel vault. The church is entered from the south by a door preceded by a small porch adjacent to the first bay of the nave added in the 14th century. The nave comprises five square bays and half a bay at the entrance. Each bay in the nave is matched by two bays in the side aisles. Each bay in the nave is lit by two round arched windows located below the ceiling vault, while the side aisles are lit by a single small round arched window. The chancel is lit by three large round arched windows, with two further round arched windows above. The two-tiered cloister is located to the north of the church. The north and west walks are still intact, while the other two walks have disappeared along with the refectory wash house. The surviving walks are rib vaulted, the ribs resting on corbel responds along the walls. They open onto the garth through three light windows surmounted by two small round windows, the whole within a large slightly flattened round heade arch. Many of these openings have been bricked up and provided with a plain rectangular window. The chapter house, rebuilt in 1345, is ceiled by a beautiful star-shaped vaults whose ribs rest on a central pier surrounded by a bundle of six shafts, and on pointed corbels along the walls. The chapter house opens onto the cloister through a large plain door, and the twin light openings on each side of the door are equally as plain with their arches springing from flat wall surfaces at the side and coming to rest on a pair of very slender shafts in the centre. The monks’ dormitory, dating to 1270, is a splendid room some 73 mt long. It is divided into two aisles by 10 short round piers with especially fine capitals having a square base and abacus, supporting the ribs of the vaulting which rest along the walls on small and simple corbels. The original windows have been replaced by large rectangular windows. The two bays closest to the church were rebuilt in 1345 when the underlying chapter house was restored. The monks’ dayroom is divided into two aisles of seven bays each by a series of six piers, and the entire area is rib vaulted. The building set aside for the lay brothers, dating to 1200, is not parallel with the west cloister walk but tilts north northwest of it. Along with the lay brothers’ building in Fountains, it is one of the largest ever built by the Cistercians, some 93 mt long by 16.5 mt wide. The frater, which occupies the northernmost part of the complex, is divided into two aisles of five bays each that are completely rib vaulted and marked by buttresses on the outside wall. Also worthy of special mention is the wine press room with its ancient grape presses.

The abbey complex is privately owned today, and the church is occasionally open to the public.

Photos

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