Einhard’s Basilica Michelstadt-Steinbach

The small church building in the Michelstadt district of Steinbach exudes a very special dignity and grandeur. Built almost 1200 years ago in the middle of the solitude of the Odenwald, Einhard’s Basilica is today one of the best-preserved examples of Carolingian architecture in Germany.

At a glance

Schlossstraße 17
64720 Michelstadt, Steinbach

Show on Google Maps

Opening Hours

Learn more

A map of Hessen HESSEN

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.

Learn more
A bright room flooded with sunlight, featuring old stone walls, open wooden doors and a green meadow in the background.

View through the nave to the west portal, the entrance to the basilica.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

High stone room with exposed wooden beams and small window openings.

View into the nave towards the apse. The open roof truss was built of oak beams in 1168, making it one of the oldest roof structures still in existence in Germany.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

Einhard's Basilica with a red tiled roof and partially light-coloured plaster, surrounded by green grass and trees, against a blue sky with white clouds.

The light-coloured plaster on the north wall, around the windows of the central nave, on the so-called clerestory, was applied around the year 827 and is still original today.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

A small, arched passageway made of red bricks, leading outside to a green meadow with trees.

The round arch adjoins the basilica and connects it with the sacristy.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

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.

Learn more
Five stone grave slabs leaning against the arched vault of an old wall.

On the north wall of the nave, five funerary monuments commemorate mainly deceased Benedictine sisters who lived in the convent in the 13th century.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

View through three consecutive doorways in stone walls with different textures.

This Gothic doorway leads to the sacristy and the winter choir.

Photo: Michael Leukel, 2020

Six vertical information boards in an exhibition presenting historical artefacts, texts and images on a medieval theme.

A small exhibition provides information about the life and work of Einhard, who left behind a unique document of his time in the Vita Caroli Magni, the biography of Emperor Charlemagne.

Photo: Manfred Giebenhain, 2015

In the vicinity

Overview of all cultural treasures