Eberbacher Hof

Wine was the abbey's principal trade good, generating up to 60 percent of its annual sales revenue. Among Cologne's ecclesiastical wine importers, only the cathedral chapter handled comparable volumes. Buyers were mostly Cologne wholesalers who resold the wine across northern Europe. Thanks to its quality, the abbey's wine typically fetched above-average prices.

The courtyard was the destination of the Kölnfahrt, the central event of the abbey's economic year. Each autumn after the grape harvest, or the following spring, the monastic fleet set out from Reichartshausen and collected the produce of the abbey's estates downriver along the Middle Rhine. Besides wine, they sold grain, timber, and goods from the monastery's workshops. The voyages also served to procure items the abbey could not produce itself, above all salt, sea fish, metalware, and spices. A 1517 shopping list is the oldest surviving evidence that isinglass—the swim bladder of the sturgeon—was used to clarify wine.

No record survives of exactly when the courtyard was built; it likely arose just a few years after the abbey's founding in 1136. Lay brothers of the monastery managed it, and through the courtyard the abbey built ties with Cologne citizens who made donations or joined the order. When the Servas Gate was transferred to the abbey in 1292, it took over the gate's upkeep and simultaneously gained Cologne citizenship. Through further acquisitions, the complex gradually grew into a walled compound forming a "city within the city."

From the 15th century onward, the Kölnfahrt—and with it the town courtyard—gradually lost importance. Renewing toll privileges grew increasingly difficult, and the abbey clashed with the city council and citizens over staple rights and direct sales to consumers. After a new Cologne Rhine toll was introduced in 1475, the abbey was forced to sell its wine temporarily in Deutz in 1488. Even so, Cologne remained the main trading hub for Eberbach's wine well into the 16th century.