Saturday 31st October – Rottenbuch, Germany

 We drove through lovely countryside this morning, more rolling land with hills, large open fields and woodland. We wanted a few days of relaxation and had found an open ASCI campsite at Rottenbuch, We have been encountering the Romantic Road on our travels and Terrassen-Camping am Richterbichl is on its route. We arrived within minutes of their three hour closure between 12:00 and 15:00 but were able to book in and pitch up. The weather was really good, sun and blue skies but we knew that the forecast for tomorrow was not good. That gave us the incentive to walk into the town, ten minutes away.
The small town is based around a large monastery that was founded in 1073 and developed over centuries. Although it is no longer a monastery, some of the buildings still exist and the first one that we encountered on the edge of the town was the very large manor farm building and barn. Moving further in through a monastery gateway, we saw the a clock tower and a line of (we assume) monastic buildings.
An information board told us that the brewery was the first building to be erected after the laying of the foundation stone of the new monastery in 1750. They had their priorities right as beer was very important to the monks as they had a monopoly on beer in the manor. It was the only profitable operation in the abbey at a time when the average beer consumption in the manor was 230 to 280 litres per person per year. In the second half of the 18^th century, the brewery was producing 220,000 litres per annum. That was in addition to 30,000 litres of wine per annum from the monastery vineyards in the South Tyrol. Life as a monk can’t have been too bad!
By the clock tower was discovered the entrance into a church and realised that the clock tower was also a standalone bell tower. The church didn’t look at all special from the outside but it was a real ‘Wow’ moment when we walked in. The inside decoration was stunning – Baroque/Rococo style and totally over the top. This was the monastery church (now just the local Catholic church) and had been developed over the centuries, with the current decoration dating to the 18^th century. The ceiling paintings are of a very high quality and the plaster work is incredibly intricate. It all looked to be in perfect condition – no water damage, no missing pieces of plaster. We always see a lot of churches on our trips and often become ‘churched out’ but this was so unexpected and I didn’t know where to look next, there was so much to see.
There was lots of activity in the church with people bringing in trestle tables and obviously preparing for an event. Today is Halloween, tomorrow is All Saints Day and Monday is All Souls Day. Our guess was that it was that it was connected with All Saints but there seem to be lots of things for children and a chocolate cake suggested that it was going to happen today rather than tomorrow.
Directly opposite the church is the graveyard and, as we have often seen in Germany before, the graves were all being prepared for All Souls Day when people visit the graves of their relatives. All of the graves have a small area of soil in front of them and these had been planted with new blooming plants. The graveyards are nearly always immaculate, a sign that families tend to stay in the same area, unlike England where the population seems to be much more mobile.
Photos: Seen at the Abbey Farm – an early caravan?; The range of abbey buildings – the church is hiding behind the tower; A view down the nave of the church; The very ornate pulpit; Musicians above the choir; Some of the beautiful paintings.