Germany - North Rhine-Westphalia - Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey

Aerial view of Princely Abbey of Corvey, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, near the town of Höxter.

Sent by Hans from Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Surrounded by a still largely preserved rural setting and revealed from a distance by the pointed roofs and the bare-stone towers of the westwork, the Carolingian Westwork and the Civitas Corvey lie along the western side of the river Weser in the east of the town of Höxter, in North Rhine-Westphalia, close to the border of Lower Saxony. The Westwork of Corvey in Höxter on the River Weser is one of the few Carolingian structures of which the main parts have been preserved, and the only example of a westwork building from that time still standing. It combines innovation and references to ancient models at a high level. As a building type it has considerably influenced western ecclesiastical Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Corvey was one of the most influential monasteries of the Frankish Empire. Its missionary task was highly important with regard to politico-religious processes in many parts of Europe. As an imperial abbey, Corvey not only had intellectual and religious functions with regard to the conversion of Saxony and adjacent areas but was also of political and economic importance as an outpost of the Frankish Empire on the edge of the Christian world at that time. The original preserved vaulted hall with columns and pillars on the ground floor and the main room encircled by galleries on three sides on the upper floor make Corvey one of the most striking examples of the “Carolingian Renaissance”. This applies to the documented original artistic decoration of the elements which still exist on the ground and on the upper floors, including life-size stucco figures and mythological friezes presenting the only known example of wall paintings of ancient mythology with Christian interpretation in Carolingian times. The structure and the decoration refer to the world of ideas of Carolingian times which has become an essential part of western history. Corvey is linked with cultural centres in Europe through historical tradition as well as through the preserved design of the building and archaeological evidence from beyond the former Carolingian empire. An inscription tablet originating from the time of the foundation of the monastery names the Civitas Corvey which can be identified with the area of the monastery by archaeological evidence. The deserted town close to the Westwork and the monastic compound preserves archaeological evidence of a quite important settlement of the Early and the Late Middle Ages (read more).