sunday drive: kloster kreuzberg

Built on the western-face of Franconia’s “holy mountain” with some six hundred thousand visitors and host to eighty pilgrimages yearly and not to mention one our favourite nearby locales, I was a bit taken aback to find that I had neglected to make mention of the Franciscan Kreuzberg Cloister beforehand—but will make amends for the place we went to again today, taking advantage of the sunny and clear though cold day.
Until Irish missionaries arrived in the mid-seventeenth century, the mountain was known as Aschberg (after a warlike race of Norse gods Æsir, like the titans as distinct from the Olympians, and not the tree, however) and ostensibly the site of a tree-worshiping cult before being rebranded in the native language after Golgotha.  A convent was later formed and in the early 1700s, the brothers were granted a charter to brew beer (it is hard to object to a group of sequestered individuals who earn their keep through prayer and beer), which is still a major attraction to this day.
After making sport in the snow or hiking the trails, most repair to the guesthouse for a beer and refreshments. The monks also raise Saint Bernards to rescue the wayward, but the newest additions in the kennel were not in the mood to have their pictures taken.  We are sure to return another time when the place is a bit less crowded and once again more conducive to exploring.