design in the local cultural landscape and stands out thanks to the opulent and yet balanced profiles of the wall design above the columns with their many shaft tori and leaping impost heights. Grange Located in Kösen, the so-called "Romanesque House" is an example of a former grange of Pforta monastery. It is situated above the weir in Kösen and was first referred to in a papal deed of confirmation from 1138. The one-storey building that has survived is dated to the third quarter of the 12th century. The grange was run by bearded lay brothers (conversi), including their own mills, workshops and efficient water supply systems in order to enhance the economic independence of the Cistercians. The Cistercians managed to enlist parts of the peasant population into their service, offering the liege lords compensation payments for their release from personal bondage. These people partly worked as conversi, lay brothers, supporting the Cistercians’ local grange economy, and partly they were sent as groups to resettle in Silesia, Greater Poland or the Baltic region through the agency and assistance of the Cistercian Order. If the monastery's own financial resources were not adequate for such endeavours, Pforta was able to borrow large amounts of money within the Cistercian Order, foremost from the primary abbey of Clairvaux. Over time, Pforta was thus able to establish a sphere of domination within the area surrounding the monastery. Kleine Saale For 1180, it is documented that the Cistercians were given permission to build a Saale weir between Wenzendorf on the west bank of the Saale and Kösen. The construction of this weir was linked to the building of a canal of some 10 kilometres in length, which still exists today and runs from Bad Kösen via Pforta to just outside Naumburg. It has been called the "Kleine Saale" (Little Saale) since the 13th century. This canal was designed not only to supply drinking and domestic water to the monastery but also to drive a number of mills in Kösen, at Pforta monastery and in Altenburg (Almrich). The mill at Pforte is a monumental, basically Romanesque stone structure, situated between the western monastery wall and the cloister area. A Romanesque chimney indicates that there used to be a blacksmith's workshop. With their elements of medieval architecture, the mill and blacksmith's building is one of the oldest preserved functional buildings in Central Germany. Several contracts show that the