Monastic Island of Reicheneau - UNESCO: World Heritage

with a rectangular sanctuary and stone-built monastic buildings.
In the southern cloister wing two benches parallel to
the walls were found: it is assumed that this was the early
place of the chapter assembly before the high medieval chapter
house in the eastern wing was built.
These early building phases have been archeologically
investigated and are, in part accessibly, preserved beneath
the present-day floor.
Under the bishops Waldo and Heito (786–822/23) the
Monastery of Reichenau rises to become one of the foremost
abbeys in the Empire of Charlemagne: On behalf of
Charlemagne Abbot Heito travels to Byzantium. In 806 the
monastery church is re-built as a cruciform basilica with
nave and two aisles, with a double-apse sanctuary and alternating
pillars in the nave. Consecration takes place in
816. The eastern parts are preserved up to the base of the
roof. This significant building is an early example of a centralizing
cruciform construction, developed from the square
of the crossing. Fragments of figured wall-paintings and rich
choir screens were excavated, indicating a rich interior. The
monastic buildings are very skillfully equipped with an underfloor
heating-system of late antique tradition. And with
the number of monks increasing rapidly soon the cellar in
the western wing had to be changed into a heatable monks‘
hall (ground floor preserved). On the eastern wing a heatable
cell adjoins, presumably the scriptorium, in the North-
East there was the hospital with its many rooms. The disposition
of this monastery serves as a template for the “Plan
of St. Gall”, drawn around 825 on the island of Reichenau
an idealized plan of a Benedictine Monastery with labels
adjusted to the St. Gall situation.
In the late 9 th century a western transept was added, separated
to a large extent and with two west towers in front,
which after 873/85 became the place of worship of the relics
of St. Mark transferred from Venice (St. Mark’s Basilica).
In addition several chapels were built in the east of the
monastic church, among others an axially situated round
chapel that after 923/25 held a Relic of the Holy Blood.
The flourishing worship of St. Mark lead to a re-construction
of the lay part of the church: Around 1000 the western
transept was replaced by a longer nave (after a fire in 1006?).
Abbot Berno (1008–48) erected a new western transept with
an apse with square outside walls an a tower, consecrated
1048 in the presence of Emperor Henry III (completely preserved).
The polychrome structure of the tower with pilaster
strips and an arched frieze, the regular crossing and the
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