Scots Monastery, Regensburg (must see)

The Scots Monastery is a historic Benedictine Abbey of Saint James. Founded in the 11th century by Irish missionaries, the monastery was predominantly occupied by Irish monks initially and later by Scottish monks. The official name of the monastery church is "The Irish Benedictine Abbey Church of St. James and St. Gertrude."

Originally constructed to the south of the city walls around 1070, the abbey soon became too small to accommodate the growing number of Irish monks. As a result, a new site was acquired outside the western city gate, and construction of a new abbey began around 1100. Around 1300, as the city walls were extended, St. James became integrated into the fortified city, and the adjacent western gate came to be known as the Jakob Tower.

The first abbey church, built at the beginning of the 11th century, was a three-aisled basilica with three apses. While only the eastern end of this building, including the apses and two flanking towers, remains intact, traces of the western wall have been discovered, suggesting that the original structure was shorter but of similar width to the present building.

A new church, which largely survives to this day, was constructed between 1175 and 1180. It exemplifies Romanesque architecture, featuring a three-aisled basilica with three apses, towers at the eastern end, and a transept at the western end. The transept houses a gallery that spans all three aisles and now houses an organ.

The most renowned architectural feature of the church is its north portal, known as the Scottish portal. Occupying a third of the north wall, the portal is lavishly adorned with ornamental and figural sculptures.

The interpretation of the sculptural program on the Scottish portal has been a subject of debate since the early 19th century. The portal is divided into three horizontal and three vertical sections. The lower level showcases a richly decorated doorway flanked by relief sculptures on flat fields. The middle level comprises a tympanum and archivolt in the center, with blind arcades adorned with caryatids on either side. The upper level depicts a frieze depicting Christ and the twelve apostles at the center, flanked by figureless blind arcades on both sides.