St. Michael Church, in Fulda

Fulda

Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...

, Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, is considered to be the oldest Holy Sepulchre church in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, built in the Carolingian

Carolingian architecture

Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian family dominated west European politics...

 architectural style (Pre-Romanesque

Pre-Romanesque art

Pre-Romanesque art and architecture is the period in Western European art from either the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom in about 500 or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the 11th century Romanesque period...

) on behalf of abbot Eigil in the years (820 - 822). It served as a burial chapel to Fulda

Fulda

Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...

 monastery founded in 744, which was one of the prominent cultural centres of the early Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. St. Michael stands in the neighbourhood of Fulda cathedral, and the architect was probably the monk Racholf (d. 824). The rotunda and crypt remain preserved from this time. In the 10th and 11th century, the church was extended from the rotunda, and a west tower was built. In 1618 the roof over the rotunda was rebuilt with a conical roof, and in 1715 - 1716 a chapel was added to the north side. Wall paintings in the interior date from the 11th century.