Photography by Mike Mander | The Ottobeuren Abbey

Germany - Day 7: The Abbey of Ottobeuren

August 21st

I thought this series deserves its own gallery. Although quite large, this Benedictine Abbey is unassuming from the outside and indeed, with its fresh and somewhat tacky paint job (fake stonework?!), one might be forgiven for passing it by. However inside is totally another story. Maybe some would find it tacky too, but the extraordinary amount of exquisite detail that this church contains, is something I do find remarkable! I have made the high-res images fairly large so that you can appreciate all the amazing detail.

All that gold you see everywhere? Well, it's actualy real. There are even four real human skeletons enshrined, presumably religious figures of importance (photos 13 & 14). Sadly, the central part of the abbey's interior was occupied by scaffolding (visible on the right side of photo 3, looking straight up at the ceiling), in preparation for some restoration work, but there was still so much to see and photograph, it didn't really detract too much from the experience. Lastly, there are three large pipe organs in this abbey, the main one is visible in photos 23 & 29 and one of the two that flank the main altar can be seen in photo 11.