The story of Abbey of Echternach

Every Whit Tuesday, tens of thousands of pilgrims and visitors come to Echternach for a dancing procession held in honour of Saint Willibrord, the last such traditional procession in Europe. It all goes back to this abbey. In 698 Irmina of Oeren gave land here to Willibrord, a missionary from Northumbria known as the Apostle to the Frisians, so that he could build a larger monastery.

He opened the first church in 700, and in 714 Charles Martel had his son Pepin the Short baptised at Echternach. Willibrord died here in 739, and his grave soon drew pilgrims. The abbey developed one of the most important scriptoria in the Frankish Empire, and its work helped shape the early Carolingian Renaissance.

In 971 Otto the Great brought back the Benedictines with forty monks from Trier, opening a second golden age. In the 11th century the monks produced the Codex Aureus of Echternach, written entirely in gold ink.