The Benedictine Abbey of Echternach was founded in 698 by St. Willibrord. The Abbey was noted for its scriptorium which produced exceptional illuminated manuscripts. During the French Revolution the Abbey was closed and its manuscripts were confiscated and sold and scattered. The Codex Aureus Epternacensis, created around 1040, is a Gospel written with gold letters and richly illuminated. It is preserved in the German National Museum in Nuremberg.

Annunciation

Visitation

Nativity

Adoration

Presentation

     The souvenir sheet below shows the ivory Christ on the Cross sculpture which forms the central part of the superb cover of the "Codex Aureus Epternacensis". It was created for the Echternach Abbey in the workshops of Archbishop Egbert of Trier, between 983 and 991.