Week 30: Melk Abbey
We ventured over to Lower Austria this weekend to explore Melk Abbey.
An abbey is a type of monastery made up of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The Melk Abbey, or “Stift Melk” in German, is one of the world's most famous active monasteries. It is more than a church and museum, it is also Austria’s biggest Catholic private school with about 900 students. It overlooks the Danube River, adjacent to the Wachau valley. The abbey is just an hour from Vienna which makes it one of the most popular day trips from Vienna for those who want to enjoy the countryside of Austria.
Surprisingly, everywhere we have gone in Austria seems like we have the place to ourselves and the abbey was no different. Usually this place is packed with tourists, but there were maybe 9 other people wandering the courtyards and gardens with us.
If you want to see the inside, you will have to go and see it for yourself. The interior was a strict no-photo zone. However, the exterior offered wonderful picture opportunities and several gardens to enjoy.
The church is a textbook example of high baroque architecture and is considered to be one of the most beautiful baroque churches in the world. All of the rooms we walked through were beautiful, but the most ornate were the church and the library. It houses 100,000 books and is one of the most important rooms, second only to the church. Some of Austria’s first rulers are also buried in the abbey church, including several members of the ruling noble family from 976 to 1246.
Melk Abbey can be visited daily, year round! When we first moved here, it seemed like everything was closed on Sundays, but we are slowly learning a lot of castles and churches remain open on Sundays. Here is a link to admission times and prices.
We also celebrated the beginning of “birthday week” for Eric and our neighbor, Anna!
It was a piñata-hitting, scavenger-hunting, food-eating evening and we are very thankful to have awesome neighbors to hangout with. Friday will be Eric’s 30th and next weekend we are planning a big adventurous trip back to Hallstatt to celebrate!!
