Maulbronn Monastery

Maulbronn Monastery is a Cistercian abbey in Maulbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, founded in 1147 by monks from Neuburg Abbey after Walter von Lomersheim donated the estate in 1138. Regarded as one of the best-preserved medieval monastic complexes in Europe, it contains in its narthex what is described as Germany's oldest surviving example of Gothic architecture, built around 1220, and a sophisticated water-management system of roughly twenty ponds and channels engineered by the monks to serve the site. The Duchy of Württemberg annexed the monastery in 1504 and converted it to Protestant use in 1556, after which it continued as an Evangelical seminary and boarding school, a role it still performs alongside functioning as a museum and administrative center. UNESCO inscribed the complex as a World Heritage Site in 1993, and it now draws roughly 235,000 visitors a year to its three museums and exhibitions on monastic and seminary history.