Melk Abbey (german: Stift Melk) is a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The co ...

above the town of

Melk Melk (; older spelling: ) is a city of Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria, next to the Wachau valley along the Danube. Melk has a population of 5,257 (as of 2012). It is best known as the site of a massive baroque Benedictine monaste ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...

, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

river, adjoining the

Wachau The Wachau () is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems an der Donau, Krems that also ...

valley. The abbey contains the tomb of Saint Coloman of Stockerau and the remains of several members of the

House of Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...

, Austria's first ruling dynasty.

History

The abbey was founded in 1089 when

Leopold II, Margrave of Austria Leopold II (1050 – 12 October 1095), known as Leopold the Fair (german: Luitpold der Schöne), a member of the House of Babenberg, was Margrave of Austria from 1075 until his death. A supporter of the Gregorian Reforms, he was one of the main op ...

gave one of his castles to Benedictine monks from

Lambach Abbey Lambach Abbey (german: Stift Lambach) is a Benedictine monastery in Lambach in the Wels-Land district of Upper Austria, Austria. History A monastery was founded in Lambach in about 1040 by Count Arnold II of Lambach-Wels. His son, Bishop Adalbero ...

. A monastic school, the Stiftsgymnasium Melk, was founded in the twelfth century, and the monastic library soon became renowned for its extensive manuscript collection. The monastery's

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

was also a major site for the production of manuscripts. In the fifteenth century the abbey became the centre of the Melk Reform movement which reinvigorated the monastic life of Austria and Southern Germany. Today's

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

abbey was built between 1702 and 1736 to designs by Jakob Prandtauer. Particularly noteworthy are the abbey church with

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of Mural, mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the ...

s by Johann Michael Rottmayr and the

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

with countless

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

manuscripts, including a famed collection of musical manuscripts, and

s by

Paul Troger Paul Troger (30 October 1698 – 20 July 1762) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger's illusionistic ceiling paintings in fresco are notable for their dramatic vitality of movement and their palet ...

. Due to its fame and academic stature, Melk managed to escape dissolution under Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 u ...

when many other Austrian abbeys were seized and dissolved between 1780 and 1790. The abbey managed to survive other threats to its existence during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

, and also in the period following the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater German ...

in 1938, when the school and a large part of the abbey were confiscated by the state. The school was returned to the abbey after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and now serves nearly 900 pupils of both sexes. Since 1625 the abbey has been a member of the

Austrian Congregation The Austrian Congregation is a congregation of Benedictine monasteries situated in Austria, within the Benedictine Confederation. History The Congregation was founded on 3 August 1625 by Pope Urban VIII, and consisted of eleven Benedictine monast ...

, now within the

Benedictine Confederation The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict. Origin The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monasti ...

. In his novel ''

The Name of the Rose ''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fictio ...

'',

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...

named one of the protagonists "Adso of Melk" as a tribute to the abbey and its famous library. Among its alumni was the nineteenth-century Austrian dramatist and short-story writer, Friedrich Halm. Melk Abbey is also the metaphorical climax ("a peak in a mountain range of discovery") of

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...

's autobiographical account of his walking tour across pre-WW II Europe in '' A Time of Gifts'', which includes a description of the abbey at that time. The abbey is part of Wachau Cultural Landscape, a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

Restoration Efforts

The first fire at Melk Abbey and its invaluable library was in 1297. This left the structures destroyed. This fire, plague and famine led to the “Melk Reform” movement in the early fifteenth century. Most of the manuscripts Melk is famous for housing were saved by Monks. During the 1683 Turkish invasion, the Melk Abbey also suffered devastation. The abbey that stands today, built in 1702, caught fire in 1974. This second fire marred the ornamented rooms and damaged the interior and its art, leading to its restoration from 1978 to 1995. The nave of the abbey was a part of the restoration. Eight pounds of gold bullion was used to restore the statues and altars. The restoration process also focused on the church’s frescoes and brown marble columns. The Marble Hall, a popular guest attraction, was also restored during this period. These restoration efforts leave the abbey similar to its 1740 grandeur. In July 2019, Christine Glaßner, from the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medieval Research, while researching the abbey's archives, discovered a previously unknown strip of parchment—measuring by —bearing 60 partial lines of the poem '' Der Rosendorn''. The parchment, which had been subsequently recycled into the binding of a much later book, has been dated to around 1300; this is nearly 200 years earlier than it was previously thought to have been written.

Euro commemorative coin

Jesus of Nazareth on the Cross, Stift Melk

Melk Abbey was selected as the main motif of a 10 euro collectors' coin: the Austrian Melk Abbey commemorative coin, minted on April 18, 2007. The obverse shows a view up to the façade of the abbey church and its two side wings from a low level. The twin baroque towers and the great dome of the church behind them can be seen. In the lower right corner the coat-of-arms of the Abbey of Melk (the crossed keys of St. Peter) can be seen.

Gallery

Melk - Stift (0).JPG, West view of Melk Abbey Stift Melk Nordseite 01.jpg, North side of Melk Abbey and entry of Melk river into the

Melk - Stift.JPG, View from the south 070526 Stift Melk 02.jpg, Main entrance 070526 Stift Melk 03.jpg, Prelate's courtyard 070525 Stift Melk 01.jpg, Melk Abbey at night Melk Stift Altstadt.jpg, Melk Abbey at night from the old town Melk Abbey aerial view 001.jpg, Aerial view Melk90.jpg, Leopold Altar, painting by Georg Bachman (1650) 05 Melk.JPG, Choir stalls 04Melk.JPG, Pulpit Stiftskirche Melk Deckenfresken 01.JPG, The ceiling Melk - Abbey - Library.jpg, Melk Abbey Library 070526 Stift Melk 09.jpg, Staircase between the library and church Stift Melk church dsc01494.jpg, Church of the Abbey StiftMelkDeckenfresken.jpg,

Fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of Mural, mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the ...

ed ceiling of the church StiftMelkKuppel.jpg, Cupola of the church The Triumph of the Monk by Johann Michael Rottmayr - Melk Abbey Austria.jpg, The Triumph of the Monk, by Johann Michael Rottmayr Melk Abbey.JPG, Melk Abbey Stift Melk 004.jpg, Melk Abbey Melk18.jpg, Margravine Swanhilde's altar, eleventh century St. Benedict's triumphal ascent to heaven by Johann Michael Rottmayr - Melk Abbey Austria.jpg,

St. Benedict Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orien ...

's triumphal ascent to Heaven, also by Rottmayr Ceiling painting of the Marble Hall - Melk Abbey - Austria.jpg, Painting on the ceiling of the marble hall Topografia 1672 Vischer Moelckh.jpg, Melk Abbey in 1672, before its renovation by Jakob Prandtauer.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Churches completed in 1736 Benedictine monasteries in Austria 1089 establishments in Europe Christian monasteries established in the 11th century Monasteries in Lower Austria Baroque architecture in Austria Tourist attractions in Lower Austria 11th-century establishments in Austria Melk Establishments in the Margraviate of Austria