HEAVENLY FERMENT

Princess Anna, just over a year old, died on a cold January day, struck down by a sudden illness in the darkness of winter. The year of the tragic event was 1319. And yet, despite the many centuries gone by, the unfortunate child is still with us. To see her, I enter a vestibule cloaked in darkness. With my first gingerly steps, lights come on, triggered by a movement detector, revealing a small hall with an arched vault held up by a central pillar. Then another light switches on, in a vitrine built into an old ornate cabinet. It discloses a gruesome sight: the mottled, mummified body of a small child. Its legs are crossed like Christ on the cross, a simple white cloth is draped over the genitals. The fingernails are clearly visible. The head looks too big for the shrunken body, the mouth is slightly agape. Meet Princess Anna, daughter of Emperor Louis IV. Her last, and rather public, resting place is the vestibule of the church at the Kastl Abbey. The majestic monastery sits on top of a steep hill, high above the picturesque village of Kastl and the small Lauterach River.

This encounter struck me as an appropriate introduction into a weird and wonderful world of monasteries and churches in a rarely visited part of Germany. Kastl lies in Lower Bavaria, hidden in wooded hills. Lower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of the German state of Bavaria. Its geographical position is in the very east of the state, bordering the Czech