HERZOGENBURG. - Abbey of Lateran Canons Regular of St. Augustine, in Lower Austria,
diocese of St. Pölten. It has charge of 16 incorporated parishes.
Bishop Ulrico I of Passavia founded in 1112, in the vast forests of that time, near the river Traisen, a monastery for Canons Regular, under the title of St. Giorgio (now St. Georgen an der Traisen), chiefly in order to establish a centre of religious and civil culture. Rudigero, bishop of Passavia, transferred the seat in 1244 to a more suitable place, H.; the original church was dedicated to St. Giorgio in 1267. During the Protestant Reformation the house was close to extinction, but subsequently recovered and flourished again. In the Baroque period great works were also undertaken at H.: the church was transformed in the Baroque style by Fr. Mungenast and Fischer V. Erlach, with frescoes by B. Altomonte. The convent too was partly rebuilt by Mungenast himself and by J. Prandauer, but was not completed. It has a magnificent ceremonial hall and a fine library.