Date and time of visit: August 16, around 11 a.m.
After passing through the French-German border, we headed for the « Maulbronn Abbey ». This small village in Baden-Württemberg, Germany is famous for the best preserved Cistercian monastery in Europe, including its buildings.
It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As I’ll explain later, this was the most beautiful and impressive place in this trip. It was also one of the places that I personally thought was the best place to visit among all the World Heritage Sites in Europe that I have visited.
It takes less than 2 hours to get there from Strasbourg, France. The geographic relationship is as follows.
It’s a very small town so it’s hard to find with the michelin map I have, but I was able to get there without getting lost.
The monastery is located on the outskirts of the city. We drove through the main street of the small town and parked our car on the side of the abbey surrounded by the charming walls and started sightseeing.
Through these narrow little gates.
It was truly a medieval town.
Even though the square in the middle of the town is very large, there are only about 10 buildings in the whole village at most. The model in the tourist information center makes it obvious.
The gate you’ve just passed through is in the lower left corner. I’m afraid it’s a well-worn expression, but it really is a village just like the one in Dracula.
Now, deep in the center of this village is the Maulbronn Monastery, which I introduced a little earlier.
ここは、ヘルマン・ヘッセの自伝的な小説『車輪の下』の舞台としても知られているとか。『車輪の下』では主人公ハンスがマウルブロン修道院に併設されていた神学校に通うが、ヘッセ自身、マウルブロンの神学校に通っていた時期があったということです。（Wikipediaより）
This monastery was very solemn and cool. There were not so many tourists, so I could see it very quietly.
There is a bit of light in the photos, but in reality it was quite dark inside, probably due to the weather.
I felt very sacred, but to be honest, I might not want to train (study) in such a place (laughs).
Nowadays, many religious facilities are brightly lit due to the influence of electricity, but I think that there were very few lights inside the monastery (or rather, you could hardly see them). I think this makes the atmosphere even more sacred, and gives a strong impression to the whole place.
Taken from the courtyard inside the monastery.
There are not many historical and religious sites in Europe that have retained their medieval appearance without being affected by the modern tourism industry.
Although there is no other way to get to Maulbronn except by car, it is a wonderful town that I strongly recommend you to visit if you are in this area of Germany.
さて次は北上、シュパイアーを目指します。（続く）
