Welcome to the Matthias Chapel (St. Matthew's Chapel)

In many respects, the Matthias or St. Matthew’s Chapel is one of the most remarkable buildings in the region and a masterpiece of late Staufer architecture.

It was probably built in the first half of the 13th century on the western side of the existing upper castle. The story of ist origins remains hypothetical. The legend that Henry I of Isenburg-Kobern brought the head of the Apostle Matthew back from the Damiette Crusade (1217 - 21) and had the chapel built as a result cannot be substantiated. What is certain is that the relic was in Kobern in the middle of the 14th century. The chapel owes its preservation to the Prussian Crown Prince and later King Frederick William IV, who discovered the jewel, which was already scheduled for demolition, while travelling in 1836. He commissioned the Koblenz architect Johann Claudius von Lassaulx to “restore the chapel to its most beautiful state”.

A further restoration took place over a century later, when the Rhineland-Palatinate State Administration extensively reconstructed the interior and carried out structural stabilisation of the building between 1989 and 1998.

The artistic design of Matthias Chapel is as unique as its location – comparable only to Vianden Castle Chapel. It was modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and presents itself as a hexagonal central building with a tower-like raised centre. A small, round choir with a conical roof closes off one side. The interior is richly structured and reinforces the impression of an orient-influenced architectural style. The room is lined with colourful floor mosaics and surrounds a hexagonal-shaped centre surrounded by six bundles of columns. The congregation does not sit in rows of benches, but sits facing the centre in seating niches lined up along the outer wall.

Today, the Matthias Chapel is looked after by the Matthias Brotherhood of Kobern.