On one of our long drives across Europe to get back to the UK at the end of a holiday we had slept in our car at a Rastplatz near Konstanz and noted the presence nearby of the WHS of Reichenau Island. Thus it was that we briefly visited this Bodensee island at 7am one misty morning. In fact you hardly notice that you have left the “mainland” as you cross a small channel. The island is rolling/low lying and largely consists of fields of market garden produce. It contains several medieval churches. Luckily at that time of the morning we found one of the churches open as a lady cleaned it and replaced the flowers. The murals dating from the 10th century were certainly very fine.

But should it really be a “World Heritage Site”??

The reason for the island’s inscription is that the first German Benedictine monastery was founded there in 724. The whole island was run as a “monastery” and still has 3 churches dating from 8th to 13th century. So it meets a number of criteria concerned with cultural tradition, buildings, land use and artistic work.

No doubt some will say that one cannot rate such a place on the basis of a rushed morning visit and entering a single church. Michelin gives it a single “*” (“Worth a visit”) – and that is about what I would give it. If you are in the area by all means take it in - but if this deserves WHS status then the world total number should run into thousands!