Melk Abbey
History
The monumental Benedictine Abbey of Melk, visible from afar, shines bright yellow on a steep cliff sloping north towards the Melk River and the Danube. As one of the most beautiful and largest unified baroque ensembles in Europe, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
831 the place is mentioned as Medilica (= border river) and was important as a royal customs and castle district.
In the second half of the 10th century, the Emperor enfeoffed Leopold I of Babenberg with a narrow strip along the Danube, with the castle, a fortified settlement, in the middle.
Manuscripts in the Abbey Library of Melk refer to a community of priests already under Margrave Leopold I. With the extension of the dominion eastwards to Tulln, Klosterneuburg and Vienna, the Melker Burg lost its importance. But Melk served as a burial place for the Babenbergs and as a burial place for St. Koloman, the country's first patron saint.
Margrave Leopold II had a monastery built on the rock above the town, which Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey moved into in 1089. Leopold III transferred to the Benedictines the Babenberg castle fortress, as well as estates and parishes and the village of Melk.
Since the monastery was founded by a margrave, it was removed from the jurisdiction of the diocese of Passau in 1122 and placed directly under the Pope.
Until the 13th century the Melker Stift experienced a cultural, intellectual and economic upswing and a monastery school is documented in manuscripts as early as 1160.
A big fire destroyed the end of the 13th century. Monastery, church and all outbuildings. The monastic discipline and economic foundations were shaken by the plague and bad harvests. Criticism of the secularization of the monks and the associated abuses in the monasteries resulted in a reform decided in 1414 at the Council of Constance. Following the example of the Italian monastery Subiaco, all Benedictine monasteries should be based on the ideals of the Rule of Benedict. The center of these renewals was Melk.
Nikolaus Seyringer, abbot of the Italian Benedictine monastery in Subiaco and former rector of the University of Vienna, was installed as abbot in the Melk monastery to implement the "Melk reform". Under him, Melk became a model of strict monastic discipline and, in connection with the University of Vienna, a cultural center in the 15th century.
Two thirds of the Melk manuscripts that have survived to this day date from this period.
Reformation period
Nobles came into contact with Lutheranism at the Diets. Also as an expression of their political resistance to their sovereigns, the majority of the nobility converted to Protestantism. Farmers and residents of the market tended to turn to the ideas of the Anabaptist movement. The number of people entering the monastery fell sharply. The monastery was on the verge of dissolution. In 1566 there were only three priests, three clerics and two lay brothers left in the monastery.
In order to prevent Lutheran influences, the parishes in the area were occupied from the monastery. Melk was the regional center of the Counter-Reformation. Based on the model of the six-class Jesuit schools, in the 12th century. founded,
oldest school in Austria, the Melker Klosterschule, reorganized. After four years at the Melk School, the students went to the Jesuit College in Vienna for two years.
In 1700 Berthold Dietmayr was elected abbot. Dietmayr's goal was to emphasize the religious, political and spiritual importance of the monastery with a new building.
In 1702, shortly before Jakob Prandtauer decided to build a new monastery, the foundation stone for the new church was laid. The interior was designed by Antonio Peduzzi, stucco work by Johan Pöckh and the painter Johann Michael Rottmayr the ceiling frescos. Paul Troger painted the frescoes in the library and in the Marble Hall. Christian David from Vienna was responsible for the gilding. Joseph Munggenast, a nephew of Prandtauer, completed the construction management after Prandtauer's death.
In 1738 a fire in the monastery destroyed the nearly completed building.
Finally, the new monastery church was inaugurated 8 years later. Monastery organist in Melk was the later Viennese Cathedral Kapellmeister Johann Georg Albrechtsberger.
The 18th century was a golden age in terms of science and music. However, because of its importance for the state, the school system and pastoral care, the monastery was not closed under Joseph II like many other monasteries.
In 1785 Emperor Joseph II placed the monastery under the leadership of a state Commander Abbot. These provisions were rescinded after the death of Joseph II.
In 1848 the monastery lost its landlordship, and the financial compensation money received from this was used for the general renovation of the monastery. Abbot Karl 1875-1909 had a great influence on life in the region. A kindergarten was set up and the monastery donated land to the city. Furthermore, on Abbot Karl's initiative, cider trees were planted along the country roads, which still characterize the landscape today.
At the beginning of the 20th century, sewers, new water pipes and electric lights were installed. To finance the monastery sold, among other things, a Gutenberg Bible to Yale University in 1926.
After the annexation of Austria in 1938, the monastery high school was closed by the National Socialists and the larger part of the monastery building was confiscated for a state high school. The monastery survived the war and the subsequent period of occupation with almost no damage.
Restoration work on the entrance building and the prelate's courtyard, as well as the structural analysis in the library and the Kolomani Hall, were necessary in order to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the monastery in 1989 with an exhibition.
the pen
The complex, built uniformly in the Baroque style by Jakob Prandtauer, has 2 visible sides. In the east, the palatial entrance narrow side with the portal completed in 1718, which is flanked by two bastions. The southern bastion is a fortification from 1650, a second bastion on the right side of the portal was built for the sake of symmetry.
To the west we experience a theatrical production from the church facade to the balcony with a distant view over the Danube valley and the houses of the city of Melk at the foot of the monastery.
In between, courtyards of different dimensions follow one another, which are oriented towards the church. Crossing the gate building you enter the gatekeeper's yard, in which one of the two Babenberg towers is located on the right-hand side. It is part of an old fortification.
We continue through the archway and are now in a two-story bright hall, the Benediktihalle, with a fresco of St. Benedict on the ceiling.
From here we look into the trapezoidal prelate's courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard stood the Kolomani fountain until 1722, which Abbot Berthold Dietmayr gave to the market town of Melk. A fountain from the dissolved Waldhausen Abbey now stands in place of the Kolomani fountain in the middle of the prelate's court.
Simplicity and calm harmony characterize the facade structure of the surrounding buildings. Baroque paintings on the central gables by Franz Rosenstingl, depicting the four cardinal virtues (moderation, wisdom, bravery, justice), were replaced in 1988 by modern depictions by contemporary painters.
Kaiserstiege, Kaisertrakt and Museum
From the Prälatenhof we go over the left rear corner through the gate over a colonnade to the Kaiserstiege, the stately staircase. Cramped in the lower part, it unfolds upwards with stucco and sculptures.
On the first floor, the 196 m long Kaisergang runs through almost the entire southern front of the house.
Portrait paintings of all Austrian rulers, Babenberger and Habsburg, are hung on the walls of the Kaisergang in Melk Abbey. From here we enter the rooms of the imperial family, which are used as the monastery museum. The "Melker Kreuz", donated by Duke Rudolf IV, a valuable setting for one of the highest-ranking relics, a particle from the cross of Christ, is only exhibited on special occasions.
colomani monstrance
Another treasure of the monastery is the Kolomani monstrance, with the lower jaw of St. Koloman, Dar. Annually on the feast day of Saint Koloman, October 13, it is shown at a service in memory of the saint. Otherwise, the Kolomani monstrance is on display in the Abbey Museum of Melk Abbey, which is located in the former imperial rooms.
marble hall
The Marble Hall, two floors high, connects to the Imperial Wing as a banquet and dining hall for secular guests. The hall was heated with hot air via a wrought iron grille embedded in the floor in the middle of the hall.
A monumental ceiling painting by Paul Troger on the heavily grooved flat ceiling in the Marble Hall of Melk Abbey is impressive, with which he gained national fame. "Triumph of Pallas Athene and victory over the dark powers" depicts figures floating in a heavenly zone above painted mock architecture.
Library
After the church, the library is the second most important room in a Benedictine monastery and has therefore existed since the founding of the Melk monastery.
The Melk Library is divided into two main rooms. In the second smaller room, a built-in spiral staircase serves as access to the surrounding gallery.
The ceiling fresco by Paul Troger in the larger of the two library rooms creates a spiritual contrast to the ceiling fresco in the Marble Hall of Melk Abbey. Dark wood with inlay work and the matching, uniform golden-brown coloring of the book spines determine the impressive, harmonious spatial experience. On the upper floor there are two reading rooms with frescoes by Johann Bergl, which are not accessible to the public. The library of Melk Abbey contains around 1800 manuscripts since the 9th century and a total of around 100.000 volumes.
The Collegiate Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, dedicated in 1746
The high point of the baroque monastery complex of Melk Abbey is the collegiate church, a towering domed church with a double-tower facade modeled on the Roman Jesuit church Il Gesu.
We enter a mighty, barrel-vaulted hall with side chapels and oratorios and a 64 meter high drum dome. A large part of the designs and suggestions for this church interior can be traced back to the Italian theater architect Antonio Beduzzi.
Inside the Melk Collegiate Church, a pompous, baroque work of art opens up before us. A synergy of architecture, stucco, carvings, altar structures and murals decorated with gold leaf, stucco and marble. The frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr, Paul Troger's altarpieces, the pulpit and the high altar designed by Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, sculptures designed by Lorenzo Mattielli and the sculptures by Peter Widerin create the overwhelming overall impression of this high Baroque church.
Of the large organ built by the Viennese organ builder Gottfried Sonnholz, only the external appearance of the organ from the time it was built in 1731/32 has been preserved. The actual work was abandoned in 1929 during a conversion. Today's organ was built by Gregor-Hradetzky in 1970.
gardens
The baroque abbey park with a view of the baroque garden pavilion on the ground floor was originally designed with baroque flower, green plant and gravel ornaments, from the “paradise” garden idea of the baroque era at the time it was created. The garden is based on a philosophical-theological concept, the sacred number 3. The park is laid out in 3 terraces with a water basin, water as a symbol of life, on the 3rd terrace. The baroque curved fountain basin on the ground floor, in the middle of the longitudinal axis of the garden and the garden pavilion, corresponds to the lantern above the church cupola, in which St. Spirit, the third divine person, is represented in the form of a dove as a symbol of life.
After 1800 an English landscape park was designed. The park then became overgrown until the monastery park was renovated in 1995. The "Temple of Honor", a neo-baroque, eight-sided open columned pavilion with mansard hood on the 3rd terrace of the monastery park, and a fountain were restored, as was the old system of paths. An avenue of linden trees, some of which are around 250 years old, is planted at the highest point of the abbey park. Accents of contemporary art connect the park with the present.
The installation of the "Benedictus-Weg" has the theme "Benedictus the blessed" as its content. The paradise garden was laid out according to old models from monastery gardens, with medicinal herbs and strongly colored and fragrant plants.
Below is a "Jardin méditerranée" an exotic, Mediterranean garden. Biblical plants such as fig trees, vines, a palm tree and an apple tree are planted further along the path.
gazebo
The baroque garden pavilion on the ground floor of the abbey park is an eye-catcher.
In 1747/48 Franz Munggenast built the garden pavilion for the priests as a place to relax after the strict periods of Lent. The cures used at that time, such as bloodletting and various detoxification cures, required strengthening afterwards. The monks were divided into two groups, one continued with normal monastic life while the other was allowed to rest.
The paintings by Johann W. Bergl, student of Paul Troger and friend of Franz Anton Maulbertsch, show an imaginative baroque attitude to life, painted paradisiacal conditions, as a contrast to the asceticism of monastic life. The theme of the frescoes above the windows and doors in the large hall of the pavilion is the world of the senses. Putti represent the five senses, for example the sense of taste, the most important sense, is represented twice, as drinking in the south and eating in the north.
The sun shines in the center of the ceiling fresco, the vault of heaven, and above it we see an arc of the zodiac with the monthly signs of the seasons spring, summer and autumn.
On the edges of the ceiling fresco on the painted attic, the four continents known at the time are depicted: Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south and America in the west. Exotic scenes can be seen in the other rooms, such as the discovery of America in the east room. Depictions of angels playing cards or angels with billiard cues indicate that this room was used as a gambling hall.
During the summer months, the main hall of the garden pavilion at Melk Abbey is used as a stage for concerts at the International Baroque Days at Pentecost or the summer concerts in August.
Melk Abbey and its park form a harmonious whole through the interaction of the spiritual and nature levels.