Abbey of Echternach
Coordinates: 49°48′50″N 06°25′21″E / 49.81389°N 6.42250°E
The Abbey of Echternach is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Echternach, in eastern Luxembourg. The Abbey was founded by St Willibrord, the patron saint of Luxembourg, in the 7th century. For three hundred years, it benefited from the patronage of a succession of rulers, and was the most powerful institution in Luxembourg.
The abbey is now a popular tourist attraction, and owes much of its modern fame to an annual dancing procession that is held every Whit Tuesday. Tens of thousands of tourists, day-trippers, pilgrims, and clergy visit Echternach to witness or participate in the traditional ceremony.
Lying on the River Sauer, Echternach had been the site of a 1st-century Roman villa. By the 6th century, the estate at Echternach had passed into the hands of the see of Trier, which had constructed a small monastery on the estate. In 698, Irmina of Oeren granted the Northumbrian missionary Willibrord, Bishop of Utrecht, land at Echternach to build a larger monastery, appointing Willibrord as abbot. In part, the choice was due to Willibrord's reputation as a talented proselytiser (he is known as the Apostle to the Frisians), and, in part, due to the danger posed to his see of Utrecht by pagan Frisian raiders. Echternach would be the first Anglo-Saxon monastery in continental Europe.
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