Germany Lorsch

German Post issued a stamp commemorating the 1250th anniversary of the Lorsch Abbey, former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch,Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque-Carolingian style buildings in Germany. Its chronicle, entered in the Lorscher Codex compiled in the 1170s (now in the state archive at Wurzburg) is a fundamental document for early medieval German history. Another famous document from the monastic library is the Codex Aureus of Lorsch. In 1991 the ruined abbey was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The stamp shows a detail of a painting created in 1854 by the Darmstadt court painter August Lucas (1803-1863) with the gatehouse in the foreground, the romantic excessive fragment of the monastery church in the background and a look at the Hessian mountain road.

Released January 2, 2014