Stiftskirche St. Martin und St. Severus, Münstermaifeld
Metternich – Schrumpfbach, Moselle tributary river kilometre 28
The tall double tower towers far above the cathedral, the town of Münstermaifeld, the Maifeld. In the 6th or 7th century there was a Merovingian foundation, an original parish. A church was built on the foundations of a Roman watchtower and consecrated in 640 by Archbishop Modoald. After 700, St Martin’s Church became a “monasterium” (minster), a monastery church.
Archbishop Ruotbert is said to have accompanied King Otto I to Rome and brought relics of Presbyter Severus of Antrodoco from the Italian province of Valeria to Trier in February 952, which then came in procession to Münstermaifeld under Archbishop Egbert of Trier (977-993), making the place a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
The lower part of the “Westwerk”, the 34-metre-high double tower, which is still visible today, is the significant remnant of the Romanesque predecessor of the collegiate church consecrated in 1103.
The basilica, which had a flat roof until then, was replaced by today’s Gothic church between 1225 and 1322. The Gothic upper storey with its battlements and oriels was not added until the 14th century. It was consecrated in 1322 under Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg. For him, the cathedral on the Maifeld was an important site on the border with Electorate Cologne. In 1794, the church treasury was moved to Ehrenbreitstein on the right bank of the Rhine, and in 1802 the collegiate monastery was dissolved in the course of secularisation. During the renovations of 1924-1933, wall paintings of the 13th to 15th centuries were uncovered. (Source: Wikipedia)
