The Cistercians as landscape designers

The Cistercian order has left its mark on the landscape since the Middle Ages. From Burgundy, the Cistercians settled all over Europe, building monasteries in the solitude of marshy valleys, cultivating and settling land. Cistercian monastic landscapes have typical characteristics throughout Europe. They are a common European heritage:

• Sophisticated hydraulic engineering for supplying and disposing of the monastery and for generating energy (wells, kitchens, latrines, breweries, mills)
• Extensive pond farming to supply fish during the fasting periods
• Granges, specialized farmsteads with correspondingly large plots of land for agriculture and livestock breeding as the economic basis of the monastery economy
• Large forests for construction and firewood supply
• Viticulture for religious purposes, but also for trade
• Fruit and hop growing
• City courtyards as marketing locations for the surpluses

The basis of comparability was the foundation of the abbey in the early heyday of the order in the first half of the 12th century, i.e. at the time when the Cistercians were structurally most effective in terms of space due to the principle of self-sufficiency. This was contrasted with the investigation of local diversity in the coinage. This manifests itself in the adaptation of Cistercian ideals to local determinants such as soil, climate and rule. A second period of significant cultural landscape characterization can be found in the modern era and manifests itself in the second heyday of the Cistercians after the Counter-Reformation.

The aspects of diversity and unity in the appearance of the landscape and landscape-shaping elements will be shown through six simultaneous exhibitions, a symposium and educational programs at the six partner locations, as well as made tangible through events and tourist offers. Guided tours, hikes, cycle tours and guided tours are intended to enable visitors to “rediscover” the landscape as a monastic landscape.