Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey, Austria

Melk Abbey perched on a high rocky cliff over the Danube River during golden hour sunset.

A working Benedictine monastery in Baroque dress, perched on a rock above the Danube at the gateway to the Wachau valley.

The place

Melk Abbey (German: Stift Melk) sits on a rocky bluff above the Danube in Lower Austria, just where the river enters the Wachau valley. From the water its ochre walls and green copper domes look more like a palace than a monastery, but monks still live here and a school still runs in its wings. The abbey belongs to the Austrian Congregation of the Benedictines.

The bluff gives the site its character. To the north the Danube bends past, and the little Melk river joins it below the walls. To the south the old town of Melk spreads out at the foot of the rock, a short, steep walk from the abbey gate. Seen from the opposite bank near Emmersdorf, the whole complex rises over the confluence as one long, rhythmic façade, and that is the view most photographs use.

Inside the walls the abbey holds the tomb of Saint Coloman of Stockerau and the remains of several members of the Babenberg family, the first ruling dynasty of Austria. Behind the main buildings lies a park, laid out in the Baroque period and later reshaped as a landscape garden, with a small pavilion at its heart.

Melk is a long-standing stop for river cruises and for cyclists following the Danube path, so the abbey is busiest at midday in the warm months. The surrounding Wachau Cultural Landscape is a World Heritage Site, and Melk makes a natural start or finish for a journey through its vineyards and apricot orchards. The abbey's own website, http://www.stiftmelk.at, is the place to check opening arrangements.

Its story

Melk Abbey dates its foundation to 1089, when the Babenberg ruler Leopold II donated a fortress on the rock to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey. The fortress became a monastery, and in the twelfth century a school grew up beside it, the ancestor of the grammar school that still occupies part of the complex. The library gained a name for copying and collecting manuscripts, many of them with music.

In the fifteenth century Melk became the heart of a reform movement that set out to renew monastic discipline across Austria and southern Germany. That reputation for learning later served the abbey well.

The buildings visitors see today are largely the work of the early eighteenth century, when the architect Jakob Prandtauer rebuilt the whole abbey as a Baroque showpiece. Johann Michael Rottmayr and Paul Troger painted the frescoes in the church. Later in the same century the community became a meeting place for Enlightenment ideas, and some of its monks were Freemasons, with a lodge of their own.

The abbey's standing protected it when Emperor Joseph II closed many Austrian monasteries in the 1780s. It also came through the Napoleonic Wars. In the Nazi period after the Anschluss, the state confiscated the school and much of the abbey, and both were handed back after the Second World War. The school now teaches girls and boys alike.

Literature has kept the name alive. Umberto Eco called a young monk in The Name of the Rose Adso of Melk, and Patrick Leigh Fermor treated his arrival at Melk as a high point of his walk across Europe in A Time of Gifts.

What to see

Culture

Melk Abbey is first of all a monastery, and that shapes the atmosphere. Benedictine monks have lived on this rock since 1089, following a rule built around prayer, study and hospitality. The school in the abbey's wings, the library and the church all grew out of that routine, and the Baroque grandeur serves it rather than replacing it.

Catholicism is the cultural backdrop in Lower Austria, and feast days, church bells and processions still mark the calendar in the towns along the Danube. The abbey church is used for worship, and the tomb of Saint Coloman, an early saint linked with the region, is a point of real devotion as well as a sight.

The Enlightenment left its mark too. In the eighteenth century the community was more interested in science, books and open debate than its fortress-like setting suggests, and its learned reputation helped it survive the age of monastery closures. Today it combines tourism with teaching, music and some quiet monastic life.

Austrian visitors tend to treat sights like this with a calm, low-key courtesy: they queue patiently, speak softly indoors and expect the same of others. Guided groups arrive in waves from river cruises around midday, so the rhythm of the day is noticeable.

In the abbey church, keep your voice low, cover bare shoulders, and do not photograph anywhere that a sign or a guide asks you not to.

What to wear

Melk and the Wachau sit in a region with a strong Tracht tradition, the folk dress of the Austrian countryside. The women's version is the dirndl, a fitted bodice and full skirt worn with a blouse and an apron, usually in cotton, linen or wool, with silk for finer pieces. Men wear Lederhosen or wool trousers with a loden jacket, a felted wool cloth that sheds rain. The Wachau is also known for the Goldhaube, an embroidered gold-thread bonnet worn by women on festive and church occasions, alongside regional dress.

In daily life in Melk, people dress plainly and practically. Jeans, fleeces and walking shoes are normal, and cyclists in sports gear are everywhere along the river. Tracht appears at weddings, festivals, harvest events and Sunday outings, and many locals own a good piece even if they rarely wear it.

A visitor should dress for walking and for a working church. The abbey stands on a hill with cobbled and stone surfaces, so comfortable closed shoes with grip are wise. Summer can be hot and the interiors cool, so carry a light layer, and bring a rain jacket outside high summer. Shoulders and knees should be covered inside the abbey church; a light scarf or shirt in the bag solves that. In cooler months, add a warm hat and gloves for the exposed riverside paths and the walk up from town.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. Late April to June and September to October. Spring and early autumn are mild enough for walking and cycling, and river boats run from mid-April through October. Midsummer is warm and busiest at midday; winter is cold and quiet, with fewer boats.

How long. 1–2

Getting there. Fly to Vienna International Airport, then take a train from Vienna towards Melk; check the national rail timetable for the current service. From the station it is a short, uphill walk to the abbey. By car, take the A1 Westautobahn and leave at the Melk exit; Vienna is about 85 km away. From mid-April to October, river boats link Melk with Krems along the Wachau.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources