28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Magnificent Romanesque and Peasant war fury in the lost Kaltenborn monastery near Allstedt

From the 12th to the 16th century, the Kaltenborn monastery near Allstedt was a religious, cultural, and economic center of the southeastern Harz foreland. Today the abbey has wholly disappeared from the cultural landscape. Current excavations by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA) bring to light impressive relics of the monastery church, but also many evidence of the destruction of the complex in the Peasants’ War of 1525.

The Augustinian monastery of Kaltenborn near Emseloh (Mansfeld-Südharz) was founded in 1118. The founders were the Saxon-Thuringian Count Wichmann and his wife Kunigunde, the daughter of the famous Ludowinger Ludwig the Springer. Favored by the high nobility and richly endowed with donations, Kaltenborn developed into one of the most prosperous and influential monasteries in the region.

The prosperity and power of the monastery, as well as its vigorous collection of taxes, aroused resentment in the affected population – refusal of services by Kaltenborn subjects has been reported as early as the mid-15th century. When the Peasants’ War broke out in central Germany, the Augustinian monastery was plundered and devastated by insurgents from the nearby villages of Riestedt and Emseloh in April 1525. Many monks fled and did not return. The monastery did not recover from this and was finally abolished in 1538. Later, the church, cloister and all other buildings were removed so thoroughly that today only small rests of ruins have remained of the once magnificent abbey.

The eastern end of the monastery church with rectangular main apse and a semi-circular northern side apse, bird’s eye view from the east. Photo © State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA), Robert Prust

Current geophysical investigations, metal detector surveys and excavations under the direction of Prof. Dr. Felix Biermann (LDA) have now produced surprisingly rich relics of the monastery. The walls of the abbey church have been partially preserved under enormous masses of rubble up to a height of two meters. The stately three-aisled basilica with transept, rectangular main apse and semi-circular side apses was built in Romanesque forms in the first half of the 12th century and later expanded in Gothic style. In the south, the cloister buildings connected to a large, walled, roughly rectangular courtyard with a diameter of up to 230 meters, in which various buildings were located. Particularly impressive are the Romanesque architectural and decorative elements of the church, which include magnificent column bases, lintels with floral motifs and round arches with friezes – the latter with close parallels to the Ulrichskirche in nearby Sangerhausen, which has survived to this day and is one of the main works of Romanesque art in Saxony-Anhalt.


Writing stylus of the so-called »Harz Group« made of non-ferrous metal, 12th/13th c. Century. Wax tablets are written with such pens. Photo © State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA), Juraj Lipták
Writing stylus of the so-called »Harz Group« made of non-ferrous metal, 12th/13th c. Century. Wax tablets are written with such pens. Photo © State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA), Juraj Lipták

These architectural relics and a rich ensemble of small finds – coins, book fittings, belt buckles, pieces of jewelry, scales, signet rings, pens, and the like – shed light on the monastery’s proud early days. Other finds tell of its eventual downfall.

Numerous fragments of stove tiles from the 15th and early 16th centuries, including colorful glazed ones with figurative and floral decorations, attest to the comfort and even luxury that a monastic community did not look good on. Such finds manifest a dissolution of traditional monastic discipline and asceticism, which explains why the monasteries were only able to offer little resistance to the Reformation. The furor of the rebellious peasants resulted in layers of fire and debris with smashed ceramic vessels, broken glass from windows, tiles, and metal objects melted in embers as a result of massive destruction.

State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA)

Cover Photo: Romanesque column base in the main apse of the monastery church. © State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA), Felix Biermann

Related Articles

History of 8,500 years waits for a museum

19 June 2023

19 June 2023

The conservation process of the Yenikapı shipwrecks, which were discovered during the Marmaray project and considered the largest collection of...

3,500-year-old perfectly preserved ancient frozen bear found in Siberian

28 February 2023

28 February 2023

As the permafrost on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island in eastern Siberia melted, a mummified brown bear that lived more than three...

An extraordinary votive treasure was unearthed in the ancient Roman bath sanctuary of San Casciano Dei Bagni in Italy

7 August 2022

7 August 2022

In San Casciano Dei Bagni, a Tuscan hill town famous for its hot springs, 40 miles southeast of Siena, unique...

Southwest Germany’s Oldest Gold Artifact Found

28 May 2021

28 May 2021

Archaeologists discovered the 3,800-year-old burial of a woman who died when she was around 20 years old in what is...

4,000-year-old Snake-Shaped Pottery Handle Found in Taiwan

20 February 2024

20 February 2024

National Tsing Hua University archaeologists in Taiwan have discovered a snake-shaped pottery handle dating back approximately 4000 years. Researchers uncovered...

Archaeologists may have discovered lost settlement of Apancalecan in Mexico

3 August 2023

3 August 2023

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Guerrero discovered a prehistoric settlement spread across 29 hectares...

700-Year-Old Lord Vishnu’s Sculpture Washes Ashore on Pedda Rushikonda Beach

23 March 2025

23 March 2025

On a serene Friday evening, the tranquil shores of Pedda Rushikonda beach were disrupted by an extraordinary sight: a centuries-old...

Archaeologists revealed Urartian King Menua second temple in Van excavations

22 December 2022

22 December 2022

The second temple of King Menua as well as a chamber tomb were unearthed during the excavations carried out this...

Hellenistic cremation tomb found in Istanbul’s Haydarpasa excavations

11 April 2022

11 April 2022

A brick tomb belonging to the Hellenistic period (330 BC – 30 BC) was found during the Haydarpaşa excavations, which...

Vikings arrived in Newfoundland 1,000 years ago: Scientists

20 October 2021

20 October 2021

Vikings’ first permanent settlement in North America – the coastal outpost in Newfoundland known as L’Anse aux Meadows now has...

New Research Reveals Previously Unknown Aspects of the Construction, Use, and Ritual Significance of a Neolithic Rondel Found in Poland

12 December 2024

12 December 2024

An archaeological excavation at Nowe Objezierze in north-western Poland has uncovered a rondel dating to around 4800 BC, offering new...

First Trilobite Fossil Amulet from Roman Early Empire (1st–3rd Century CE) Found in Spain

22 July 2025

22 July 2025

In a discovery that may reshape our understanding of how ancient Romans perceived the natural world, archaeologists have uncovered a...

From ‘Empty Lands’ to Rich History: Discovery of the First Bronze Age Settlement in Maghreb, Dating to 2,000 BC

15 March 2025

15 March 2025

Researchers at the University of Barcelona have made a remarkable discovery: the first Bronze Age settlement in the Maghreb region...

Sumatran fishing crews may have found the legendary Gold Island in the Mud of the Indonesian River

24 October 2021

24 October 2021

The site of the Srivijaya kingdom, known in ancient times as the Island of Gold, may have been found by...

1,500-Year-Old Imperial Stone Inscription Unearthed in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia

18 August 2025

18 August 2025

A newly unearthed stone inscription, tentatively named the “Stele of the Emperor’s Northern Tour,” has been discovered in the vast...