Billed as the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps, the one-time Cistercian monastery Kloster Maulbronn was founded by Alsatian monks in 1147. It was born again as a Protestant school in 1556 and designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1993. Its famous graduates include the astronomer Johannes Kepler. Aside from the Romanesque-Gothic portico in the monastery church and the weblike vaulting of the cloister, it’s the insights into monastic life that make this place so culturally stimulating.
Maulbronn is 30km east of Karlsruhe and 33km northwest of Stuttgart, near the Pforzheim Ost exit on the A8. From Karlsruhe, take the S4 to Bretten Bahnhof and from there bus 700; from Stuttgart, take the train to Mühlacker and then bus 700.
