Synopsis
For centuries, the Plan of Saint Gall has inspired a vast number of architects and even more historians. Yet, it had never been realised – until today. In 2013 a registered non-profit society called "Karolingische Klosterstadt e.V." has accepted the challenge to build the fictitious abbey within a period of 50 years, applying methods and tools of the early ninth century.
Building a living history site with staff in period costume, portraying construction and everyday life as well as the monastic culture of the Carolingian times – a period setting stage for our common medieval heritage – in the microcosm of an almost autonomous abbey is a totally new and ambiguous project.
When the construction site of this size will be realised in Meßkirch, a small village close to Lake Constance in South-Germany, new avenues for communicating archaeological and historical information to the German public will open up, while at the same time serious questions in terms of interpretation and quality management arise.
