Home to the first construction in Gothic style in Germany

Our last city of the three we’ve planned for today (well, I planned and dragged all the 6 friends of us we travelled together); Maulbronn. But hey! what a great day we’ve spent so far, the best decision for a day trip from our base in Frankfurt to enjoy some of the nicest historic little cities and villages in these regions of Germany so famous for their many timber-framed houses, abbeys, cathedrals, nice food and good company. After all, any of these we’ve visited today are very small and near each other so no need for needing any further time, there is well enough on a same day to see them all, and even more in between.

If back in Lorsch the city was famous for its UNESCO listed Abbey, and then in Speyer, the UNESCO listed cathedral, here in Maulbronn there is also another World Heritage Site listed, the Cistercian monastery. Now as you see this is very clear and there is no any way around that this trip has been planned to visit all of these sites since we are fan number one for being at the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites as possible in the lifetime.

The city is, 70 kilometres southeast from Speyer our previous city we came from, is already in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, just 40 kilometres west of Stuttgart, the regional capital city, and altogether, 150 kilometres directly south from Frankfurt. The road system in Germany, world-wide known for being one of the best, and since speed does not matter when driving (not everywhere but in most of the motorways and sections), then reaching these places is just matter of few minutes drive. That’s another of the pluses that played in our favour saving us lots of time commuting and later returning to Frankfurt, our base.

For more information about Maulbronn check this Wikipedia site, although there is very little extra information. Germany’s currency is the Euro (EUR). Please note that any price reference is true as from when this guide was created, therefore check prices in advance as with the time they change.

What to see and do in Maulbronn

• Imperial Monastery of Maulbrunn Built in the 12th century is one of the oldest and best preserved Romanesque monuments in Europe and the first in Germany to include the Gothic style. As described under the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing, it is the most complete survival of a Cistercian monastic establishment in Europe.

Transports

The nearest airports to Maulbronn are either Stuttgart around 40 kilometres east, and by all means huge Frankfurt around 150 kilometres north. Any information about the base city from where we came, Frankfurt, and its great network of public transport is published and available in the relevant guide here.

If coming directly from Frankfurt, if you are having a car then it’s 150 kilometres south, mostly on a motorway therefore around an hour drive; otherwise if you are not having a car nor planning to drive then it is best by railway, however this will be a longer journey involving 2 changes. Take any train heading south to Karlsruhe and change for one heading towards Stuttgart where along the way you need to change for a last time in Muhlacker, or get a taxi from here for the short distance left. This is the nearest city with buses and trains linking to Maulbronn. Calculate for all this trip between 2.3 and 3 hours.

If coming from Speyer as was our experience, I can only recommend you by car. Trains or buses are not direct and involve odd changes along the way. The “short” distance of 70 kilometres in between translates in almost 3 hours using public transport.

Needless to mention that once you are in Maulbronn, due to its extremely reduced size all is a matter of few minutes’ walking distance.

Accommodation

Although we did not stay overnight in Maulbronn as our base was Frankfurt, I cannot recommend anywhere in here, however the city boast a fair selection of hotels and bed & breakfast smaller accommodations. A good and reasonable point to start your search is by checking some of our preferred affiliate hotel search engine such as Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Otel.com, Agoda, Opodo, LateRooms or Ebookers.

For a travel guide of Frankfurt including the hotel we stayed for our tour, click here.

Photo Gallery

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