One of the most important architectural monuments in the Aachen region is the former imperial abbey of Kornelimünster, whose foundation dates back all the way to Charlemagne's son and successor Louis the Pious. Nevertheless, many parts of the abbey, the later buildings in particular, have remained largely unexplored. In recent years, the Chair has therefore begun to offer a series of courses that comprehensively study the ensemble based on the methods of building archaeology.

This semester, on the one hand we will devote ourselves to the baroque visitors' wing of the abbey, in which the prince abbot of the monastery could accommodate aristocratic pilgrims in a manner befitting their status. On the other hand, we will take a look at the Chapel of St. Cornelius behinde the apse of the abbey church. The aim is to document the two parts of the building in their concrete fabric and thus create the basis for further analysis. In this way, the seminar will not only introduce you to the relevant surveying and documentation techniques, but will also give you an opportunity to directly apply them to a specific building and to participate in an architectural history research project.

The majority of the course will consist of actual documentation work on the building itself. The seminar will therefore take place in the form of full-day surveying campaigns on site. The additional time spent in attendance at Kornelimünster will be compensated for by a smaller amount of individual hand-in work.