Göttweig

GÖTTWEIG. - Benedictine abbey, on a hill, called the Austrian "Gralsburg," in the diocese of St. Pölten, with a retreat house and 30 incorporated parishes (about 60,000 souls).

St. Altmann, bishop of Passau, founded in 1073, near the ruins of a Roman watchtower, a monastery for 12 canons regular, but toward the end of his life (d. 1091) he called there the Cluniac Benedictines of St. Blasien; a convent of Benedictine nuns was also added, which lasted until the 16th century. The monastery, richly endowed, carried out in the Middle Ages an extensive activity of colonization and continued it even later (agricultural and forestry cultivation, famous viticulture: the income from wine made possible the Baroque reconstruction of the monastery). Already in the 12th century there were seven churches on the hill of G. In the Gothic era G. carried out a great building activity and was a bulwark against Lutheranism. A huge fire, on June 17, 1718, destroyed the monastery almost completely. G. Luca von Hildebrandt drew up the grandiose plan for the reconstruction, which could never be completed (1717-88). Nevertheless G. is one of the richest and most extensive Austrian monastic buildings. It has a rich library, many incunabula, and large musical collections. From 1939 to 1945 the total Nazi suppression installed an "Ordensburg" there. Famous is the most learned abbot Gottfried Bessler (d. 1749), who published, among other things, the Chronicon Gottwicense (Tegernsee 1732).

Giuseppe Löw