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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue439" data-source="post: 823126" data-attributes="member: 53455">Back to the old stones... Now, you think this is a gigantic church? Well, you’re both right, because it is enormous, and wrong, because it is only a small part of it, the western end of the church that was there in the Middle Ages... The red sandstone wall that you see is where the three naves began, you can still see the V-shaped footprint of the roof of the central one. This is what’s left of the Benedictine abbey of Murbach in Alsace (eastern France, near the Rhine border with Germany), one of the most powerful abbeys that ever was. To be considered for admission, each would-be monk had to prove his quarters of nobility, and every abbot held the rank of prince of the Holy Roman Empire! The abbey was extremely wealthy, it even founded and owned the city of Lucerne in Switzerland, had an enormous and legendary library... Umberto Eco used Murbach to model the fictitious abbey in The Name of the Rose.Telling the story of how it came down through the centuries, where all the wealth and all the books went, all the associated mysteries, would be much too long for this forum. Books have been written about it. So let’s just behold this magnificent remnant still standing proudly in its silent vale...Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm, ƒ/2.8 G II lens. Handheld, natural light.[ATTACH=full]409183[/ATTACH]</blockquote>