Corvey Abbey

Corvey stands on the Weser where a Carolingian monastery was founded in the ninth century, and one part of that first church survives complete: the westwork, a tall entrance block finished in the 880s. It is the only one left anywhere, and in its upper hall are fragments of painted decoration showing scenes from Homer, mythological subjects on a church wall that nobody has fully explained. Around it the abbey was rebuilt in baroque style and later turned into a princely residence, so you pass from stark ninth century masonry into stucco halls and a library of tens of thousands of volumes. The site sits in river meadows, with the old town of Hoxter a walk away.

History

After Charlemagne's long wars against the Saxons, his son Louis the Pious announced an abbey east of the Weser in 815; monks from Corbie in Picardy arrived in 816 at a poor site called Hethis and in 822 moved here, calling their house Nova Corbeia, the new Corbie. Ansgar, later the Apostle of Scandinavia, founded its school in 823, it won the right to mint coins in 833, the first place east of the Rhine to do so, and the relics of Saint Vitus, given in 836 by Saint-Denis, made it a pilgrimage destination and one of the richest abbeys in Central Europe. The first stone church was consecrated in 844 and the westwork that still stands was built in 873-885, the oldest surviving example of its kind; the abbey's school produced scholars such as the historian Widukind of Corvey, and the princely abbey was secularised in 1803 (Wikipedia, Princely Abbey of Corvey).

The main sights

• The westwork - the ninth century entrance block, the only complete Carolingian example standing.
• The upper hall murals - faint traces of Homeric scenes painted high on the walls.
• The princely library - tens of thousands of volumes shelved in the residence wing.
• The Weser meadows - flat riverside paths that give the abbey its setting and its best views.

When to go

Opening runs from spring to autumn, with much reduced access in winter. Weekday mornings are quiet, and the westwork interior is best seen in daylight since the murals are faint and there is no dramatic lighting to help. Concerts and a garden season fill some summer weekends, which lifts the atmosphere and the crowd together.

Good to know

The famous murals are fragmentary and hard to make out, and visitors expecting vivid painting find pale outlines. The baroque rooms are handsome but not exceptional, and the ticket covers a lot of them. Public transport from Hoxter thins out at weekends. In winter much of the complex is simply closed.

Nearby

Hoxter's half-timbered lanes, the Weser upland valleys, and the abbey church at Bursfelde.

Key facts