LAACHER SEE  , a

lake of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, 5 M . W. of Brohl on the Rhine, and N. of the village of Niedermendig . It occupies what is supposed to be a crater of the Eifel volcanic formation, and the pumice stone and basalt found in great quantities around it lend credence to this theory . It lies 85o ft. above the sea, is 5 M. in circumference and 16o ft. deep, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of high hills . The water is sky blue in colour, very cold and bitter to the taste . The lake has no natural outlet and consequently is subjected to a considerable rise and fall . On the western side lies the Benedictine abbey of St Maria Laach (Abbatia Lacensis) founded in 1o93 by Henry II., count palatine of the Rhine . The abbey church, dating from the 12th century, was restored in 1838 . The history of the monastery down to modern times appears to have been uneventful . In 1802 it was abolished and at the close of the Napoleonic wars it became a Prussian state demesne . In 1863 it passed into the hands of the Jesuits, who, down to their expulsion in 1873, published here a periodical, which still appears, entitled Stimmen aus Maria Laach . In 189a the monastery was again occupied by the Benedictines .