I spent yesterday and this morning near Maria Laach abbey, a gorgeously-maintained, fairly important (Romanic) Benedictine abbey (founded in 1093) on the shores of a volcanic lake a little less than an hour south of Bonn, celebrating my mom’s birthday and reading my “haunted houses” bingo book — which just happens to be set in medieval Bermondsey Abbey on the banks of the Thames opposite the Tower (founded in 1089 and erstwhile a rich, Cluniac house of major consequence as well, but dissolved under Henry VIII, variously built over, and now vanished under the major new Bermondsey shopping and office complex). Book review to follow as part of my next bingo update!
Bermondsey Abbey
Sketches of medieval Bermondsey Abbey
(Sources: Wikipedia (left) and South London Guide (right))
Bermondsey Abbey ground plan (source: British Library)
Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (attr. — formerly attr. John Hofnagel): A Fête at Bermondsey (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Bermondsey Abbey excavations and memorial plaque
(sources: Wikipedia (left) and London Remembers (right))
The sacred taper’s lights are gone,
Grey moss has clad the altar-stone,
The holy image is o’erthrown,
The bell has ceased to toll:
The long-ribb’d aisles are burst and shrunk,
The holy shrine to ruin sunk,
Departed is the pious monk;
God’s blessing on his soul!”
Sir Walter Scott: Bermondsey
Bermondsey Abbey history and excavation (YouTube)
Bermondsey shoreline today (photo mine)
Maria Laach
Maria Laach Abbey (painting by Fr. Lukas Ruegenberg, OSB)
Maria Laach Abbey (photos: mine)
Bottom row: the tomb of the abbey’s founder, Heinrich (Henry) II,
first Count Palatine of the Rhine
The lake and our hotel’s garden, next to the abbey
Souvenirs!
(Chiefly enlarging my bookmark, magnet, and Rosina Wachtmeister collections…)
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1599073/abbey-weekend
Absolutely stunning!
We did have a great time! 🙂
No doubt. It would be impossible for it to be otherwise.
😀 True!
What a stunning collection of illustrations you’ve brought together for this post. Both abbeys are fascinating.
Thank you — and yes, they are! 🙂