Maulbronn - Monastery

Maulbronn Monastery was founded in 1147. The church, built in a style transitional from Romanesque to Gothic, was consecrated in 1178. Most other buildings followed within the 13th century. The complex is believed to be one of the the best-preserved medieval Cistercian monastery complex north of the Alpes (some claim "in Europe"). Since 1993 Maulbronn is part of the Unesco World Heritage.

After the consecration, the construction of the abbey continued. Around 1200 a narthex was added and the cloister was started. Some buildings are done in a really remarkable architectural, early gothic style. The person, who built that must have had experiences from Northern France and Burgundy. With all the cistercian connections, it was probably easy to find a "top architect". His name is not known, so the name given to him by art historians is "Meister des Maulbronner Paradieses" (Master of Maulbronn Paradise).

After the Reformation the monastery was damaged and looted a couple of times. It got secularised in 1534 and a Protestant seminary was opened here. The (today) most prominent student during the early years was Johannes Kepler.

In 1807 the seminary merged with another to "Evangelical Seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeuren" - and still today a boarding school exists here. Authors Friedrich Hoelderlin and Hermann Hesse studied here. Hesse´s novel "Beneath the Wheel" features Maulbronn.

I noticed, that even in the narthex ("Paradies"), what means in "open public", all walls are covered with graffittis and on first sight connected them with the lootings during the Thirty Years' War and the Peasants' War, - but the dates I found, did not fit, plus most troops at that time were unable to write their names.

The knowledgeable lady, that toured me through the interior of the abbey later, told me, that already very early it was customary to the students, to carve in their names somewhere, before they left the seminar. So there are thousends of names to find here...