Welcome to the Matthiaskapelle
A wonderful location and a masterful design, it may have been first built as a last resting place for the head of St Matthew and the hexagonal central building is definitely reminiscent of St Matthew’s Chapel at the basilica in Jerusalem. The richly structured interior includes lots of decorative columns and capitals, which are masterpieces of the early Gothic period. The Matthiaskapelle chapel forms a unique historical ensemble with the Oberburg and the ruins of the Niederburg.
Information on opening hours can be found here.
Admission is free.
There are small car parks by the start of the climb up to the castles in the Mühlental valley and just below the chapel.
Regrettably, as it is a historic site, disabled access to the chapel is not possible.
Restaurant auf der Oberburg
56330 Kobern
Phone +49 (0) 2607 8647
oberburg(at)aol.com
www.oberburg-kobern-gondorf.de
The restaurant is right next to the Matthiaskapelle and forms part of the keep of the Oberburg castle.
Büro für Tourismus und Kultur Kobern-Gondorf
Lennigstr. 12-14
56330 Kobern-Gondorf
Phone +49 (0) 2607 1055
tourist(at)kobern-gondorf.de
www.kobern-gondorf.de
The Matthiaskapelle chapel sits high above the Moselle valley amongst the ruins of the Oberburg, which was destroyed a long time ago. Its location is pretty unique, although reminiscent of the mountain chapel in Vianden, but the artistry is remarkable and directly linked to its original use as a relic and pilgrimage chapel. The head of St Matthew was once kept in the chapel. A knight from Isenburg may have brought this relic back from a crusade and then had the Matthiaskapelle designed and built based on the basilica in Jerusalem in around 1230. The relic was kept in Kobern until 1347 then stored in various places, including Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz, before finally being transferred to the BenedictineSt Matthew’s Abbey in Trier in 1927, where it remains to this day. The Matthiaskapelle is a hexagonal central building with a richly structured interior. The columns and capitals are masterpieces of the early Gothic period.
Contact
Matthiaskapelle
56330 Kobern-Gondorf
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The Matthiaskapelle is a historical site of the Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz (General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland‑Palatinate).
Direktion Burgen Schlösser Altertümer
Festung Ehrenbreitstein
56077 Koblenz
Phone +49 (0) 261 6675 0
bsa(at)gdke.rlp.de
www.gdke.rlp.de