During the excavation on the historic monastery site of Memleben, the concrete outlines of Emperor Otto II’s church were first determined. The church was the largest in the 10th century and served as a model for later church buildings.
Memleben (dpa/sa) – Archaeologists have found the exact location of the former church of Emperor Otto II (955-983) on the monastery grounds of Memleben (Burgenlandkreis). “We have now for the first time discovered with certainty the church of Otto II from 979. This is an unusually large church, comparable to the large Ottonian churches in Cologne and Magdeburg,” said project manager Leonhard Helten from the Institute for Art History and Archeology in Europe University of Halle on Thursday. “In addition, a wall was discovered that may have belonged to the predecessor church of Otto I (912-973) and Heinrich I (around 876-936).”
In the 10th century there was an imperial palace and a monastery in Memleben. Memleben Monastery was first mentioned in a document in 979. The monastery church was 82 meters long and 39.5 meters wide. “There were several construction phases. These phases differ in their execution, which was not known before,” said excavation manager Holger Grönwald. “We now know about the foundations and the construction joints and thus about the buildings that were planned.”
“The wall first proves that there is a predecessor building. Further investigations must show whether it is the church. Nevertheless, it is an important finding that the location can already be structurally documented in the 10th century,” said Grönwald.
In 1015, Memleben was subordinated to Bad Hersfeld Abbey and thus lost its independence in the empire. Today a museum is housed on the monastery grounds. The first German Emperor Otto the Great (912-973) died in Memleben, as did his father Heinrich I (876-936). The heyday of the monastery lasted only a few decades.
In addition, parts of the cemetery as well as finds and findings from various prehistoric eras such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age and the Roman Empire were uncovered. These include a workplace with milling and rubbing stones, leftovers from the preparation of flint tools and, to a larger extent, corresponding ceramic material and a skull burial. Furthermore, a faceted ax and a repurposed fragment of another sharpened stone ax could be salvaged. The remains of two smelting furnaces, a bricked clay tub from an associated workshop area and the work surface of a textile workshop with loom weights and spindle whorls could also be recovered. The finds demonstrate the importance of Memleben as a settlement over the millennia.
