Built according to the plan of the Palatine Chapel in Aix-la-Chapelle
Ottmarsheim Abbey differs from its model in a number of ways


Rodolphe d´Altenbourg certainly built the Abbey on the model of Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel but it must have been on the ancient plan as this plan was later greatly modified. Ottmarsheim, on the other hand, kept its original plan and this visitors understand immediately at first sight. This is not the case for visitors to the Palatine Chapel. In fact, the whole centralised plan of the Palatine Chapel disappeared under the great number of additions : three chapels on the left wing (1), and two chapels on the northern side (2) one of which is a huge two-storey building (2a) which greatly disfigures the north-western part of the edifice.



The two-floor square choir like that of Ottmarsheim was replaced by an enormous Gothic choir (3) as deep as the central part of the chapel..
A present view of the chapelshows that the coherence and the harmony of the ancient monument have been totally thrown out of proportion by the addition of two over-large buildings : on the left the gothic choir, on the right in place of the original Roman archway entrance, a Gothic bell tower with a spire which rises above the height of the central octagon. This same octagon is hard to see in the middle of all the buildings which have since been built around it.

The Abbey of Ottmarsheim has remained faithful to its origins. A more modest structure and also smaller because it was built on a scale reduced to 75% of its model.
Other variations from the original are in the structure itself: In Aix-la-Chapelle each side of the external octagon was doubled in relation to the central octagon. To go up to the gallery there are two spiral stairways housed in two turrets which flank the bell tower, whereas in Ottmarsheim the two straight stairways are housed within the lateral walls themselves of the bell tower entrance.

Lastly, the decoration of the Abbey of Ottmarsheim is totally different from that of the Palatine Chapel. Ottmarsheim’s is simple, sober, bare whereas in Aix-la-Chapelle it is very rich and even extravagant. The first in the style of ancient Roman art and the other is heir to art of antiquity and in particular Byzantine.
The walls, the vaults, the dome of the Palatine Chapel are all covered with rich mosaics or marble
The columns are in porphyry.

Ottmarsheim	Aix-la-Chapelle

Ottmarsheim contents itself with modest frescos which could never compare with the richness of its model. Simple limestone or sandstone, plain cubic capitals instead of the rich Corinthian capitals, taken from antique monuments in Northern Italy.

Ottmarsheim	Aix-la-Chapelle

Ottmarsheim Abbey’s wealth lies in it sobriety and its modest décor which leaves room for the beauty of the architecture itself and marks its rupture with antique art styles.