Maulbronn Monastery

I’m writing this blog entry a good ten days after actually visiting the Maulbronn Monastery complex, and I find the memory is already starting to get hazy around the edges. Luckily I have photos, my travel companion, and a detailed email to my parents to remind me of my initial impression.

The Monastery complex was exactly the sort of thing I expected to encounter in my journeys across Europe. It’s a pretty famous destination in this area because of it’s designation as a UNESCO world heritage site. The Monastery itself was founded almost 1000 years ago in what was then the middle of nowhere. The inhabitants surrounded themselves with fortification walls and proceeded to build up a sort of city (or complex) within the walls. Since they were completely self-sufficient, they built a grainery, mill, housing, winery, store houses, stables, everything you could imagine over the next few centuries. Almost all of it is preserved and can be explored today. The church is still being used and the monks dormitories have been converted into a music school.

The audio guide was the best I’ve encountered since arriving here. I am loving audio guides since organizing guided tours in English is difficult and often impossible. The guide was informative and interesting. It spoke not only of the Monastery itself but of the history and practices of monks and the monastic movement, the latter which has always fascinated me.

It was especially interesting to hear about the differences between the monks and laypersons. The laypersons were individuals who joined the movement but did not have the same level of education as the monks. They were kept separate from each other and the laypersons required to do more physical labour. The cooks knew the laypersons needed meat in their diet, something the monks did not allow as they were not allowed it themselves. The cooks cleverly hid meat inside ravioli-style noodles so the monks would never know. This was the creation of Maltaschen, one of Germany’s most popular foods.

I love travelling this time of year because the weather is still sunny and decently warm, the local visitors are all back at work and in school, and the foreign tourists have mostly dropped off. The day at Maulbronn was no exception; we spent the sunny day exploring mostly by ourselves, sharing the space with only a handful of other guests.