Construction of Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch

The Abbey of Lorsch was a Benedictine monastery in the Rhine-Main region of Germany, founded in the eighth century by Count Cancor and his mother Williswinda, and soon passed into royal hands under Charlemagne. It became one of the leading religious and intellectual centres of the Carolingian Empire, with a famous scriptorium and library, from which important manuscripts such as the Lorsch Gospels and an early medical text survive. Only a few remains are left, among them the Torhalle, a gatehouse from the ninth century that is a rare example of Carolingian architecture. The abbey declined after the Reformation and was damaged in the Thirty Years' War, and the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

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