I have lived in Salem for just shy of six months and I have visited Mt. Angel, the little German-American burg to our northeast, a disproportionate six times — and for no particular reason other than to get away from Salem and to immerse myself in the things I love done right:
Architecture
German-ness
The physical presence of spirituality
Tourism as Religion
On my first visit, after a conversation I had with a novelist at a Willamette Writers meeting, I went in search of the monastery’s Alvar Aalto-designed library. If I had more gas money, more time, or a need to infuse my novel with elements of verisimilitude from pre-Christian Rome, I would most certainly write my book there too. The German-language collection is among the finest and quirkiest I’ve seen in the United States, with volumes on things like German Romantic Love – the kind of love that culminates in a plan for dual suicide that you must carry out yourself when your girlfriend gets cold feet.
But it is the building itself which draws visitors to, as my fellow blogger Capital Taps said recently (and before I could, you cheeky monkey!) its “marvel of natural light.”
The building reminds me very much of the Egon Eiermann-designed German Embassy building in Washington, D.C., where I spent my youth writing German news stories for an American public. It has that same sleek, modern, late 1960′s feel, the same adoring attention to the use of natural light, but without the long central gangplank down the middle of the structure that would send diplomats fleeing to their light-swathed offices (to work, of course).
The library, by contrast, sends you mingling among centuries-old volumes of works you are unlikely to encounter anywhere else.
The main library floor is flanked by individual study rooms, which obscure another architectural feat — a view of Mt. Hood from the end of the mountain. Never one to balk at the challenge of a locked door — who knew monks were so proprietary? — I did find one open room and got a chance to view Mr. Hood from the south.
Sadly, the picture didn’t turn out — too much light! But that challenge is now yours to do the same…
The library is currently hosting an exhibition of works by the Valley Calligraphy Guild of Eugene, OR in the front lobby.
For a hobbyist’s exhibition, it’s strikingly charming, with one work bravely displaying the mixed messages of competing adages in gorgeous, hand-drawn font:
“All things come to those who wait.”
“The Lord helps those who help themselves.”
I think you know which one’s talking about me.
Glad you didn’t miss it!