Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey is a Benedictine abbey above the metropolis of Melk, Lower Austria, Austria, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube river, adjoining the Wachau valley. The abbey carries the tomb of Saint Coloman of Stockerau and the stays of numerous contributors of the House of Babenberg, Austria's first ruling dynasty. The abbey became based in 1089 whilst Leopold II, Margrave of Austria gave certainly one of his castles to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey. A monastic faculty, the Stiftsgymnasium Melk, changed into based inside the twelfth century, and the monastic library soon have become renowned for its big manuscript collection. The monastery's scriptorium became also a first-rate 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 abbey become constructed among 1702 and 1736 to designs by means of Jakob Prandtauer. Particularly noteworthy are the abbey church with frescos by means of Johann Michael Rottmayr and the library with infinite medieval manuscripts, such as a famed series of musical manuscripts and frescos by Paul Troger.