Fortean Traveller

127. Bebenhausen Abbey

Not often in the mostly obscure history of Western esotericism and occultism do we get the opportunity to stand in the exact spot where a pivotal event took place; however, a visit to the beautiful Bebenhausen Abbey (Kloster Bebenhausen) not only offers a unique experience of ‘almost time travel’ into the mediæval era, but you can also visit the places where the founder of Rosicrucianism ate, wrote, slept, and spent his final years.

Driving from Stuttgart almost due south towards Tübingen on the minor L1208 road, you navigate through a long and winding valley and, rounding a bend, you suddenly come across a small mediæval town that looks almost like a film set. A slight slope on the hillside is crowned by a massive village wall that surrounds several dozen black-and-white mediæval buildings. Above all of this looms a highly decorated gothic transept tower: it’s a fairyland village, if ever I’ve seen one.

Today, the hamlet is a suburb of Tübingen with about 200 inhabitants. The settlement