We are now in Austria and will visit the Melk Abbey this morning. This is possibly the most famous Abbey in Austria. It was built between 1702 and 1736 to be a royal palace with ceremonial courts, guest apartments (300) grand halls and a library (over 100,000 books, many original manuscripts).
In the 11th century, the palace was presented to the Benedictine monks who turned it into a fortified Abbey. The highlight is the Abbey church with twin spires and a high octagonal dome. The interior is baroque and so beautiful but not as awesome as the church in Passau, at least to me. The is a difference of opinion amongst the passengers on that subject.
There are still black-robed monks that stroll the Abbey since it is also a prestigious monastery school with more than 700 students.
 |
| This corridor has a mirror corridor on the other side of the grand stairway up. It has a combined length of 193 meters. |
 |
| This is a replica of the re-usable caskets that were employed in the Middle Ages. There was not a sufficient supply of caskets so the used it for the burial and the funeral party and then they opened the casket and dropped the body into the grave. |
 |
| Love the locking mechanism on this "safe" |
 |
| The grand hall in the Abbey |
 |
| View of the town of Melk taken from the Abbey |
 |
| This is the bottom of the circular staircase. Even the underside of things are decorated. |
So here are photos of the church. You saw photos from Passau, be the judge and make up your own mind on which is better.
The following shots are two side chapels with skeletons of catacomb saints.
 |
| Love the doors here! |
Here's the Abbey taken from our walk back to the ship.
 |
| This little guys was not moving as fast as us. |
Bratislava, Slovakia tomorrow!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment