GÖSS. - Former abbey of Benedictine nuns, situated near Leoben (Styria), and converted into a brewery in 1886.
Its foundation is due to the Ariboni family, of the branch of the counts of Leoben (Adula and Aribo, later archbishop of Mainz), and dates between 994 and 1020. At the beginning, it seems, there were canonesses regular; but certainly, from the twelfth century onward, Benedictine nuns. Besides its economic and social influence, the monastery always enjoyed great renown as an institution for the education of female nobility. The abbess had a seat and a voice in the Diet of Styria. Moreover, G. was always a centre of women’s art: celebrated is the “Gösser Ornat,” richly embroidered, a magnificent work of the thirteenth century, now in the Museum of Art and Industry in Vienna. Thirteenth-century frescoes are found in the former chapter house; the choir of the abbey church is later than 1338, but beneath it preserves the eleventh-century crypt. The three great Gothic naves were consecrated in 1515; four enormous twisted pillars and a magnificent portal are preserved. Despite vigorous protests in Styria, Giuseppe II suppressed the abbey in 1782, using its revenues for the short-lived bishopric of Leoben (1786–1856). Worth noting, near G., is the former church of S. Lamberto, said to have been consecrated by S. Leone XI.