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Maulbronn Monastery (German: Kloster Maulbronn) is a former Cistercian abbey and ecclesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire located at Maulbronn, Baden-Württemberg. The monastery complex, one of the best-preserved in Europe, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
The monastery was founded in 1147 and experienced rapid economic and political growth in the 12th century, but then hardship in the late 13th century and the 14th century. Prosperity returned in the 15th century and lasted until Maulbronn was annexed by the Duchy of Württemberg in 1504. Over the 16th century, the Cistercian monastery was dissolved and replaced with a Protestant seminary. It also became the seat of an important administrative district of the Duchy and later Kingdom of Württemberg.
The complex, surrounded by turreted walls and a tower gate, today houses the Maulbronn town hall and other administrative offices, and a police station. The monastery itself contains an Evangelical seminary and a boarding school.
In 1138, a free knight named Walter von Lomersheim donated an estate at Eckenweiher (now Mühlacker) to the Cistercian Order for the establishment of a new monastery. The donation was received by Neubourg Abbey, which dispatched a party of 12 monks. They arrived in 1138, but found Eckenweiher to be lacking in water and pasture space. In 1147, the Eckenweiher monks were moved to a new site near the source of the Salzach river by the Bishop of Speyer, Günther von Henneberg. This site, Mulenbrunnen, about 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) from Eckenweiher, was ideal for the Cistercians. Located in the hilly Stromberg region, it was rich in water and, though it was also near the Roman road running from Speyer to Cannstatt, was isolated. Construction of the Maulbronn Monastery complex began soon thereafter and was largely completed by 1200–01; the abbey church was consecrated in 1178 by Arnold I, Archbishop of Trier.
The new abbey at Maulbronn soon began a period of steady economic growth and legal security with the backing of both Bishop Henneberg, a supporter of the Cistericans and the Hohenstaufen, who were at the time the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1148, Bishop Henneberg waived Maulbronn's obligation to pay levies for the large amount of forest its monks had to clear and Pope Eugene III granted the monastery the right of patronage. Meanwhile, Maulbronn aggressively pursued the acquisition of new territory. In 1151, Maulbronn established Bronnbach Abbey, then acquired the Füllmenbacher and Elfinger farmsteads in 1152 and 1153 respectively, and then established Schöntal Abbey in 1157. Maulbronn has exempted from paying tithes and was made an Imperial Abbey by Emperor Frederick I in a 1156 that listed Maulbronn's possessions as comprising eleven farmsteads, portions of eight villages, and numerous vineyards. The monastery's holdings were again confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1177; by then, Maulbronn owned seventeen farmsteads.
The 13th and 14th centuries were periods of strife for Maulbronn, though in the second half of the 13th century it was granted legal jurisdiction over its territories by Pope Alexander IV. Per the rules of the Cistercian Order, its lands had to be worked by its lay brothers. However, the number of lay brothers at Maulbronn dwindled over the 13th century, owing to conflict between them and the monks, and as a result the monastery increasingly relied on hired laborers to work its land. Around 1236, the House of Enzberg became Maulbronn's patrons and vögte, or protectors. There was persistent conflict with the Enzbergs, however, and one dispute in 1270 even saw the monastery temporarily suppressed. Emperor Charles IV transferred the vogtei of Maulbronn to the Electoral Palatinate in 1372, but this act drew the monastery into the power struggle between the Palatinate and the expanding County of Württemberg.
Prosperity returned to Maulbronn in the 15th century. Its abbots demonstrated the monastery's wealth in 1450, when it made easily the largest contribution of any Cistercian abbey that year to Cîteaux Abbey, the order's seat. In 1464, Maulbronn assumed the debts of Pairis Abbey in Alsace and incorporated it as a priory. Maulbronn also came to control the convents of Mariental, Rechtenshofen, Lichtenstern, Heilsbruck, and Koenigsbruck. The number of monks at Maulbronn peaked at one hundred thirty-five in the 1460s and only dipped below one hundred again at the end of the century. In 1492, Emperor Maximilian I withdrew the vogtei of Maulbronn from the Palatinate. Maximilian I additionally forbade any further fortification of the abbey, and ordered its existing works demolished.
In 1504, during the War of the Succession of Landshut, Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg took Maulbronn after a seven-day siege. Ulrich subsequently had Maulbronn's vogtei transferred to him, effectively annexing the monastery and its territories into the Duchy of Württemberg. In 1525, the monastery was occupied by peasants participating in the German Peasants' War in 1525 and the monks were expelled.
Duke Ulrich adopted the Lutheran faith in 1534, and subsequently ordered the dissolution of all monasteries within Württemberg's territories, and seized their properties. Maulbronn was the sole exception to this order, as it was to host monks expelled from other monasteries. In 1536, Maulbronn's abbot relocated to Pairis and the next year began legal action to reclaim Maulbronn. The Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire decided in the Cistercians' favor at the 1548 Augsburg Interim, which followed the defeat of Ulrich and the other Protestant princes in the Schmalkaldic War. Ulrich was ordered to restore the Württemberg's monasteries and convents and, though he tried to delay their restoration, the Cistercians returned to Maulbronn in 1548. After the 1555 Peace of Augsburg restored religious peace in the Empire, however, Christoph, Duke of Württemberg was able to fully reform the Duchy.
In 1556, Christoph reformed the monasteries. Following a program created by one of his advisors, Johannes Brenz, he established Protestant seminaries in thirteen of Württemberg's monasteries. Maulbronn's holdings were absorbed into the Duchy and organized into a new administrative district. A Protestant Valentin Vannius, a former monk at Maulbronn, was appointed abbot and thus the head of Maulbronn's seminary in 1558.
Two Lutheran colloquys were held at Maulbronn, in 1564 and 1576.
The Thirty Years' War forced the monastery school to close until 1656.
During the Nine Years War, Maulbronn was part of the defensive network of the Eppingen lines, built from 1695 to 1697 by Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden.
In the later years of the 17th century, Duke Louis III tasked his court architect, Georg Beer, with renovating the monastery for the seminary. In that time, Louis III had a hunting lodge built on the monastery grounds, likely designed by Beer.
Maulbronn Monastery was finally secularized by King Frederick I in 1806.
Efforts to preserve and restore the medieval character of the monastery complex began in 1840.
The monastery school was taken over by the Nazi Party in 1941. It was reopened in 1945–46.
The Paradise and the fountain in the lavatorium appear on the 2013 German Bundesländer series 2 euro coin. 30 million of these coins were minted in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, and Hamburg. An average of 235,000 persons visit the monastery each year as of 2019.
The architectural history of the Maulbronn Monastery complex is still not fully understood. The monastery was constructed in the 12th century in a Romanesque style, though little of the 12th century work – the portal and its original doors – has been preserved. The specific style used, called the "Hirsau style", was native to Swabia and is characterized by uniform pillars and the rectangular frames around the Romanesque arches. Near the end of the 12th century the architecture of the Cistercians became influenced by Gothic architecture, and the order began disseminating it from northeastern France. From 1210 to 1220, an anonymous architect trained in Paris erected the first example of Gothic architecture in Germany at Maulbronn's narthex, the southern portion of its cloister, and the monks' refectory. The Late Gothic came to Maulbronn from the late 13th century to the mid-14th century, and again in the German Romantic era of the late 19th century. There is a very limited amount of Renaissance architecture at Maulbronn, represented primarily by Duke Ludwig's hunting manor.
The monastery as a whole survives due mostly to the Dukes of Württemberg.
The monastery was protected by a stone wall, a drawbridge gate, and five towers. The origins of these structures is in the 13th century.
The complex is still entered through the gatehouse, at its southwest corner, though the drawbridge is no longer present. The half-timber building on the back of the gatehouse was built around 1600 and the roof in 1751. Just behind the gatehouse are the pharmacy, originally an inn, and the residence of the monk responsible for giving early morning mass to guests at the monastery. The interior of the building is divided into a large, open fireplace and the entrance hall. Attached to the pharmacy is a 19th-century carriage house, now a museum, that stands on top of a chapel built around 1480. The foundations of the chapel's choir are still extant behind the carriage house, as are the remains of a Romanesque gate demolished in 1813. A lead pipe found here suggests that there used to be a well nearby. East of the gate is the Fruchtkasten, today a concert hall. It was built in the 13th century and then totally rebuilt and enlarged in 1580 for the storage and use of wine-making equipment.
To the north of the gate is the monastery's administrative and economic buildings. Along the western wall of the monastery are what used to be the blacksmithy and wheelwright's workshops. East of the blacksmith is the former mews, which has been Maulbronn's city hall since the early 19th century. The building was converted in 1600 from its original Gothic appearance into the present Renaissance style structure. Just north of the city hall is the Haberkasten, used as a granary, and adjacent to that is the workplace and residence of the monastery's chief baker. Finally, there are three half-timber buildings. The first is the Speisemeisterei, next to the sawmill, and the third is the Bursarium, built in 1742 as the cemetery office but used as a police station and notary as of 2019. The middle building, built in 1550, was a servant's quarters.
At the center of the monastery complex is the abbey, where the monks and lay brothers lived and prayed. The monastery had strict divisions between the two groups. This was so even in the church, which is divided into sections for the former and the latter by a choir wall. There are two ciboriums, decorated with toads, lizards, and skulls and a number of medieval works on both sides of the choir wall. In front of this wall on the lay brother's side is a large image of Christ crucified, carved around 1473 from a single block of stone. At the end of the lay brother's section is the organ, installed by Gerhard Grenzing in 2013. In the choir is a Madonna and Child, the Maulbronner Madonna, crafted sometime between 1307 and 1317. In the chancel below is the abbot's chair and a set of choir stalls providing seating for 92 monks. They were carved around 1450 by an unknown master, possibly Hans Multscher, who covered them in biblical scenes and mythical creatures. The frescoes within the church depict the Adoration of the Magi, the entrance of Maulbronn's founder Walter von Lomersheim into the monastery as a lay brother. Also present are the coats of arms of nobles who donated to the monastery's construction. The donor chapels, built within rather than outside the church, and vaulted Gothic roof, replacing the original flat and timber roof, were added when the church was renovated in the late 15th century. The altar, likely of South German make, depicts the Passion of Jesus and was once gilded and painted. Those pieces of the set that remain have since 1978 sat on a sandstone slab in the chapel.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Maulbronn Monastery”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.