Abbaye d'Eberbach

Eltville am Rhein

Bernard of Clairvaux never came here: on 13 February 1136 he sent Abbot Ruthard and twelve monks in his place. The house they took over had already changed order twice — Augustinian canons founded in 1116, expelled in 1131 for supposed indiscipline, then Benedictines. Eberbach became the first Cistercian monastery on the right bank of the Rhine and one of the largest wine estates in medieval Europe, with three hundred hectares of vines. Plundered by the peasants in 1525, by the Swedes in 1631 — the library did not survive — and by the French between 1792 and 1797, dissolved in 1803, it then served as a lunatic asylum until 1873 and as a prison until 1912. Some of the interiors of The Name of the Rose were filmed here in the winter of 1985-1986.

Getting there : Open daily; self-guided or guided visits, hotel accommodation, wine shop

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound