After finding myself in Seigburg with a few hours to kill I made my way up the hill towards the Abbey fuelled by the rumors that it produced good booze ( namely Michaels beer and Abtei likor). Assuming this would be a bog standard touristy type visit I walked up to the entrance to find hardly anyone around and lots of fenced off areas with building work.
History
Long ago in 1064 the Archbishop of Cologne founded a abbey on Michaelsberg hill overlooking the river Seig. Around 1500 the monks started producing their famous Seigburger Abtei likor but it wasn't until 2004 that a line of beers called "Michael" was added to their list. The monastery has been commandeered during the world wars and was seriously damaged during bombing at the end of WW2. At the end of the war the monks returned to Michaelsberg and rebuilt their Abbey.
Sadly in 2011 the Abbey closed (I didn't know this at the time of my visit) and production of the various beverages stopped.
The Explore
A pub at the entrance was closed and with it my fading hopes of tasting the famous monks beer. Carrying on inside the Abbey walls revealed a church with several buildings surrounding it and a beautiful crane sat in the courtyard.
With the crane cab occupied I had to skulk away in disappointment and consoled myself with trying to access some of the buildings while dodging the views of the occasional person at the site. Climbing some scaffolding gave a good view of the surrounding landscape but I hurried back down after spotting a blocked off area of the outer wall and a ramp to an underground area.
Some climbing got me to the "other" bit of the outer wall for some more nice views but my eagerness to try the basement was getting the better of me. Back at the ramp a small dirty sign said "Abtei-likor" bingo
Down in the cellar like area it was musty and cleared out, several passages into the abbey had already been bricked up except one! Hearing the voices of builders through that entrance led me keep away from it and head down some wooden stairs into some very dark tunnels/rooms. Armed with only my phones flashlight with a nearly flat battery I walked around the cold stone and brick cellar rooms until I was sufficiently spooked and came back up. Not a sniff of abtei likor in sight.
With little noise coming from the main abbey building I tried the passage to find a rather polite builder who pointed me towards a pub in town that still served "Michael" beer and Abtei likor. I got to my goal in the end and enjoyed a couple of pints with a nice bowl of kartoffelnsuppe.
D
History
Long ago in 1064 the Archbishop of Cologne founded a abbey on Michaelsberg hill overlooking the river Seig. Around 1500 the monks started producing their famous Seigburger Abtei likor but it wasn't until 2004 that a line of beers called "Michael" was added to their list. The monastery has been commandeered during the world wars and was seriously damaged during bombing at the end of WW2. At the end of the war the monks returned to Michaelsberg and rebuilt their Abbey.
Sadly in 2011 the Abbey closed (I didn't know this at the time of my visit) and production of the various beverages stopped.
The Explore
A pub at the entrance was closed and with it my fading hopes of tasting the famous monks beer. Carrying on inside the Abbey walls revealed a church with several buildings surrounding it and a beautiful crane sat in the courtyard.
With the crane cab occupied I had to skulk away in disappointment and consoled myself with trying to access some of the buildings while dodging the views of the occasional person at the site. Climbing some scaffolding gave a good view of the surrounding landscape but I hurried back down after spotting a blocked off area of the outer wall and a ramp to an underground area.
Some climbing got me to the "other" bit of the outer wall for some more nice views but my eagerness to try the basement was getting the better of me. Back at the ramp a small dirty sign said "Abtei-likor" bingo
Down in the cellar like area it was musty and cleared out, several passages into the abbey had already been bricked up except one! Hearing the voices of builders through that entrance led me keep away from it and head down some wooden stairs into some very dark tunnels/rooms. Armed with only my phones flashlight with a nearly flat battery I walked around the cold stone and brick cellar rooms until I was sufficiently spooked and came back up. Not a sniff of abtei likor in sight.
With little noise coming from the main abbey building I tried the passage to find a rather polite builder who pointed me towards a pub in town that still served "Michael" beer and Abtei likor. I got to my goal in the end and enjoyed a couple of pints with a nice bowl of kartoffelnsuppe.
D
