Since 2016, the Chair of Architectural History has offered interested students the unique opportunity to examine an icon of architectural history: the Romanesque abbey church of Maria Laach.

In a one-week excursion during the Weiße Woche, a survey of the building will be carried out on site, during which the building will be precisely measured and examined using both the most modern methods and good old hand measurements. This intensive study of the building is the basis for all further research, since due to the scarcity of written sources and statements on the genesis of the design, only the building can serve as the primary source of itself. The Field of Research will thus not only give the students the opportunity to get to know the various methods used in measuring and documenting a building but also introduce them to this kind of object-centred research approach.

The excursion will be preceded by an introduction to measurement methodologies on Friday, 22 November. After the excursion, the field of research will continue on the premises of the Chair by converting the measurements made on site into a set of clean drawings. The dates for the revision of the drawings can be arranged individually.