Einhard’s Basilica Michelstadt-Steinbach

History

The basilica is named after its founder, Einhard. He was one of Charlemagne‘s most important confidants and author of his biography, the “Vita Karoli Magni”. Charlemagne’s successor Louis the Pious gave Einhard both the area around today’s Seligenstadt and the Mark Michelinstadt in the Odenwald, today’s Michelstadt.

Here, between 815 and 827, Einhard had a magnificent church built, as he himself wrote, “of a not inglorious kind, suitable for holding divine service”, in which he later also wanted to be buried with his wife Imma.

The Einhard Exhibition

The small permanent exhibition in the former sacristy of the basilica in Michelstadt-Steinbach tells the story of the transfer of the relics of Saints Marcellinus and Peter from Rome via Steinbach to Seligenstadt am Main.