MELK. — One of the most famous Austrian Benedictine abbeys, in Lower Austria, in the diocese of St. Pölten. With its enormous bulk (lateral façade 240 m, length 320 m), situated above a precipice, it dominates the Danubian valley and the ancient town of the same name below. It has 29 incorporated parishes and a secondary school with boarding facilities.
On the site of a Roman watchtower, Leopoldo I, margrave of Austria, of the house of Babenberg, built his residential castle around the year 976, entrusting some secular canons with the religious service of the court church. Leopoldo III, the Saint, in 1089, replaced the canons with twelve Benedictines, Lambach (v.), and, after the residence was transferred to Vienna (1110), transformed the castle of M. into an abbey (1113), with a rich endowment. The monastery soon acquired great renown, also because of the presence there of the recluse « Frau Ava », known for her religious poems in Old German (Life of Jesus, Antichrist, Last Judgment), who died in 1127.
Through the efforts of Duke Albert V, and with the direct permission of Martin V, the abbot Nicola Seyringer of Subiaco, a centre of monastic reform, transferred to M. This marked the beginning, in 1418, of the promising but short-lived reform of M., which was adopted by many Austrian and Bavarian Benedictine monasteries.
At the time of the « Reformation » M. had greatly declined: in 1549 there were barely three monks there. But with the beginning of the 17th century its golden age commenced. The abbot Rainer of Landau (1623–37) succeeded in 1625, despite the strong resistance of the curias of Passau and Salzburg, in bringing together a considerable number of monasteries in a congregation, called that of M., obtaining the approval of Urban VIII (1626).
This Congregation of M. brought splendid sacred and secular scholarly activity back to life in the affiliated monasteries, emulating the Maurists of France. M. reached its greatest splendour under the abbot Bertoldo Diermayr (1702–36), who had the monastery and church rebuilt anew in their present forms, employing the finest artists of the period (J. Prandtauer, architect; J. M. Rottmayr, P. Troger, painters). The result was that incomparable monumental complex, so marvellously set within the Danubian landscape. The church, the library, the imperial apartments, and the grand staircase are among the most celebrated examples of Baroque architecture. M.’s scholarly activity also reached its height during these same years; it is enough to mention Fr Anselmo Schramb (d. 1720) and, above all, brothers (v.). Thanks to its secondary school, M. escaped the suppression ordered by Joseph II. Pius VI and Napoleon I were enchanted by M. The Nazis suppressed it (1941–45). The Library contains more than 70,000 works and preserves approximately 1,800 manuscripts and 800 incunabula; the Archive is extremely rich, and the Museum and the collection of coins and medals are noteworthy.