Melk Abbey is considered a must-see for tourists if you suddenly or purposefully find yourself in the Wachau Valley. It is unforgivable to miss such a landmark, especially since it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
I was acquainted with the monastery in absentia, and therefore, with excitement, I expected to see him firsthand. And it took place, though not quite as we would like, but the main thing took place.
It is impossible not to see him, he stands on a rock and rises above the city and the Danube, and immediately strikes the imagination with its majesty.
Previously, castles or fortresses were built on such places, Melk was no exception. In the place of the abbotswa in the 10th century there was a castle built by Margrave Leopold I. A century later, the next ruler from the Babenberg dynasty handed it over to the Benedictine monks, who have been living and working here continuously since then.
The former owners of the castle collected a huge collection of works of art and church values, manuscripts, which formed the basis of the future library and the treasury of the monastery, which were subsequently multiplied by the monks.
The monastery had to endure a lot during its existence: fire, plague, the split of the Catholic Church in the fourteenth century, then the Reformation and the Thirty Years War. Ultimately, by the beginning of the 18th century, the monastery became one of the strongholds of Catholicism in Central Europe. At the same time, his revival began. Most often, the initiators of such reforms and perestroika are specific people. Here they were Abbot Bertold Dietmayr and the architect Jacob Prandtauer, already familiar to us from St. Florian. It was decided to build a new monastery building in the Baroque style, this Dietmayr aimed to increase the religious, spiritual and political significance of the monastery.
Antonio Bedutstsi was commissioned to design the interiors, the Italian managed to establish himself in Vienna. Work began in 1702 and ended in 1746. The building was striking in its size and beauty. Its area is 17.5 thousand square meters. meters, and the length of the southern facade is more than 360 meters! Dietmayer and Prandtauer wanted the sacred cloister to compete with worldly buildings for beauty and splendor. And they succeeded!
In this form, it has reached our days.
From the city to the monastery you can climb the stairs, or by transport to the parking lot at the abbey. Walking a little along the alley, you will see such a beautiful view. There is a monastery and well-groomed alleys, and you understand that something unusual is waiting for you.
The color of the buildings immediately reminded me of the bright color of the juicy apricot fruit in the orchards, past which we passed and the color of gold. Very bright and festive.
We go down to the monastery on the stairs, on the steps of which is written the saying of St. Benedict: “Listen, and you will come”, as well as a reminder that the Abbey is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
We enter through the former fortress gate into the portal of the monastery, leading to the Gatehouse, surrounded on both sides by bastion fortifications.
Above the entrance arch is the date "ANNO MDIIXVIII" - "Year 1718", this year there was a reconstruction. Its top is crowned with a star.
The entrance to the monastery is guarded by Saint Leopold and Saint Koloman - the patrons of Austria. In the hand of Koloman, a model of the monastery church. The tomb of this saint is located here - in the Abbey.
After passing through the arch, we find ourselves in the gatehouse in which there are ticket offices on the left, and on the right is the tower, which is part of the fortification of the Babenberg era.
And right in front of us we see the magnificent eastern facade of the building, in which there is a front door, above which there is a small balcony from which the abbots welcomed the guests. On its sides are statues of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the patrons of the monastery church.
On the pediment is an excerpt from the epistle of the Apostle Paul "To the Galatians": "Absit gloriari nisi in cruce But for me there will be no other praise, except perhaps the cross of our Lord Jesus." These words remind you of the relic of the monastery: the Melk cross brought by Margrave Adalbert, one of the Babenbergs, it is a part of the cross of Christ for which a new frame was made.
Just the pediment completes an enlarged copy of the relic.
Also on the pediment we see the monastery coat of arms: two crossed golden keys on a blue background.
After passing through the arch we find ourselves in the main, Prelate courtyard of the monastery, intended for prelates - the highest clergy of the Catholic Church. Its dimensions are impressive length is 84 meters and a width of 42 meters.
Today in the right wing of this building is a gymnasium with about 900 pupils and pupils. The school was founded at the monastery in the 12th century.
In the left - an suite of imperial chambers, stretching almost 200 meters along the so-called Kaiser tract (imperial corridor), half of which has been turned into a museum with an exhibition: "The path from the past to the present is Melk Monastery, history and modernity."