Deutz Abbey

Old St. Heribert

Deutz Abbey (Kloster or Abtei Deutz) was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Deutz, now part of Cologne as Köln-Deutz, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

It was founded in 1003 on the site of a Roman fort by the future Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, close adviser of Emperor Otto III. Heribert died in 1021 and was buried in the Romanesque church he had had built here.

The theologian Rupert of Deutz was abbot during the 1120s.

The abbey had extensive properties, but its strategic position by the Rhine exposed it to involvement in fighting, and it was destroyed in the 14th century and again in the 16th. It was dissolved during the secularisation of the Napoleonic era, but became parish church again in 1804. In World War II it was heavily damaged and only ground floor and remnants of the Romanesque cellar were preserved. Reconstruction happened in the 1970s. Today the abbey is hosting a senior residence of Caritas. Notable are the mural paintings of artist Werner Weber.

Alt St. Heribert has been taken over from Neu St. Heribert, which is hosting the shrine of Heribert of Cologne since then. The old abbey church is now used by the greek-orthodox parish of Cologne.

References

• Sinderhauf, Monica, 1996. Die Abtei Deutz und ihre innere Erneuerung. Klostergeschichte im Spiegel des verschollenen Codex Thioderici. Vierow: Veröffentlichungen des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins.

Coordinates: 50°56′17″N 6°58′11″E / 50.9380555556°N 6.96972222222°E / 50.9380555556; 6.96972222222