uot;Arial","sans-serif";color:black">Echternach continued to have
royal patronage from the house of
Charlemagne.
Though the monks were displaced by the canons of the
bishop of Trier
between 859 and 971, and although
Willibrord's buildings burned down in 1017, the
Romanesque
basilica, with its symmetrical towers,
to this day houses Willibrord's tomb in its crypt. The abbey's library and
scriptorium
had a European reputation. As it
flourished, the town of Echternach grew around the abbey's outer walls and was
granted a
city charter
in 1236. The abbey was rebuilt in a
handsome
Baroque
style in 1737. In 1797, in the wake of
the French Revolution, the monks were dispersed and the abbey's contents and its
famous library were auctioned off. Some of the library's early manuscripts,
such as the famous Echternach Gospels, are now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale
in
Paris.
In the 19th century, a porcelain factory was established in the abbey and the
town declined, until the advent of the railroad brought renewed life and an
influx of tourists.
There are two main
