Reichenau Island

Reichenau Island is an island in Lake Constance in southern Germany. It lies almost due west of the city of Konstanz, between the Gnadensee and the Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance. With a total land surface of 4.3 square kilometres and a circumference of 11 kilometres, the island is 4.5 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide at its greatest extent. The highest point, the Hochwart, stands some 43 metres above the lake surface and 438.7 metres above mean sea level.Reichenau is connected to the mainland by a causeway, completed in 1838, which is intersected between the ruins of Schopflen Castle and the eastern end of Reichenau Island by a 10-metre-wide and 95-metre long waterway, the Bruckgraben. A low road bridge allows the passage of ordinary boats but not of sailing-boats.The island was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of its monastery, the Abbey of Reichenau. The abbey's Münster (minster church) is dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Mark. Two further churches were built on the island consecrated to Saint George and to Saints Peter and Paul. The famous artworks of Reichenau include (in the church of St George) the Ottonian murals of miracles of Christ, unique survivals from the 10th century. The abbey's bailiff was housed in a two-storey stone building to which two more storeys of timber framing were added in the 14th century, one of the oldest timber-frame buildings in south Germany.