Building Archaeology at the Ruin of the Benedictine Abbey of Limburg an der Haardt

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Dominik Jelschewski
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 437930411

The ruin of the basilica of Limburg an der Haardt is among the largest and most high-quality testimonies of early Romanesque sacral architecture north of the Alps. The laying of the cornerstone in 1025 was carried out by the later Emperor Konrad II at the same time as the Speyer Cathedral. As a column basilica of the Roman type, the abbey church can be understood as an architectural counterpart to the pier basilica in Speyer. However, a more detailed comparison is opposed by a insufficient investigation of the monastery church. Even in the most fundamental questions of architectural design, the largely hypothetical reconstructions are contradictory. The last investigation in 1953 stayed in its results far behind comparable studies and was never published. Since then, the research on the building stagnates, while the often unfounded assumptions in the secondary literature solidify. Therefore the influences and dependency of one of the most ambitious construction projects of this era remain unclear to this day. The central goal of the project is to present a new, current scientific requirements appropriate, building-historical examination. From a methodical point of view, the project should enable highly accurate surveying of the construction and a comprehensive examination with the aid of state-of-the-art technology, which, just a few years ago, would have been associated with complete scaffolding and considerable personell deployment. In a manageable period of 24 months, the building history is to be updated on the basis of the constructional findings in conjunction to the historical text and image sources, which clearly distinguishes between facts and hypotheses. The results of the building archaeology should be presented also beyond the circle of pure specialists in order to give this key building its proper role in architectural history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants