Saint Maximinus Chapel

Purpose / Function

The chapel is the site of all liturgies and religious offices at St. Maximinus. The monks and nuns gather in the chapel eight times each day to sing and pray the canonical hours. On Sundays and holy days, they are joined by members of the village while the Abbot says the weekly mass. Visitors and people from within the city of Trier, drawn by the reputation of St. Maximinus as having a beautiful chapel and talented chorus of singers, often choose hear mass in the Abbey rather than elsewhere in Trier. The chapel and the singing make St. Maximinus a stop on the itinerary of all important visitors to Trier.

Entries

There are three main entries to the chapel. The first is the grand exterior door of the narthex that leads out into the village on the main road into Trier. Villagers and dignitaries alike enter through this door, and it is open all day Sunday for the general public to worship at the monastery. The second is an interior door on the northeast wall of the narthex that leads directly into the monastery's chapter house. This is the most common way for the monks and nuns of St. Maximinus to enter the chapel for liturgies. There is also a stairwell adjacent to the narthex that leads to the upstairs corrior of the nuns' dormitory. The intention when the chapel was built was for the nuns to have a separate way in to the chapel during the night offices, but nuns have been entering through the same main narthex door as the monks for generations and the stairwell is always kept locked.
There is a fourth, little-known entry into the chapel in the north transept behind the altar, originally constructed for large funishings to be brought into the space. Only the cellarer has the key to this door, and the current cellarer, Brother Ingulf, is not known ever to have used it. Most ordinary monks and nuns, and also villagers, do not even know of its existence.

Architecture

The chapel was constructed in the Roman style with a plethora of arches and arched windows for natural light. Building materials consist of reused stone for the outside and polished marbles for the floor. During the daylight hours, light shines in the southwest-facing windows of the nave and transept and reflect off the marble for an effect of flooding the space with light. Frescoes depicting the life of St. Maximinus adorn the walls of the nave beneath the windows. There are four side-chapels, one in the south transept and three on the north wall that adjoins the rest of the monastery. Each is dedicated to a different saint: Saint Aprunculus, Saint Eucharius, Saint Agrecius, and Saint Nicetius.

History

This is the second chapel built for the monestary of St. Maximinus. The original structure was less grand and detached from the main building of the monastery. During the Carolingian rise to power in the mid-8th century, kings patronized this monastery and other established religious centers around Francia, and it was during this period that the current chapel was built. Begun by Charles Martel, it was completed in 751 when it first opened its exterior doors to the public for an all-day liturgy on the feast of St. Maximinus.

Tourism

Since its opening in 751, the chapel at St. Maximinus has attracted elite visitors from all over Francia and beyond. Whenever a lord, noble, king, or archbishop chances to visit Trier, a visit to St. Maximinus is in order. Between the ornate architecture of the chapel itself, the frescoes on the walls, and the talended singing of the chorus of monks and nuns, St. Maximinus Chapel continues to be a destination for dignitaries, even amid the political turmoil of the late ninth-century.

by author's sketch

Founding Date

751

Parent Location

St Maximinus

Connected Rooms

• Chapter House
• Saint Maximinus Village

This is a fictional reconstruction of an early medieval building. How it actually looked in the early middle ages is completely unknown.