Melk

MELK. - One of the most famous Austrian Benedictine abbeys, in Lower Austria, diocese of St. Pölten. With its enormous bulk (side facade 240 m., length 320 m.), situated above a precipice, it dominates the Danube valley and the ancient little town of the same name below. It has 29 incorporated parishes and a gymnasium with a boarding school.

On the site of a Roman watchtower, Leopold I, Margrave of Austria, of the House of Babenberg, built his residential castle around the year 976, entrusting the religious service of the court church to some secular canons. Leopold III, the Saint, in 1089, replaced the canons with twelve Benedictines, called from Lambach (v.), and, after the transfer of the residence 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 near the monastery 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, Abbot Nicholas Seyringer of Subiaco, a center of monastic reform, transferred to M. Thus began in 1418 the promising but short-lived reform of M., which was accepted by many Austrian and Bavarian Benedictine monasteries.

At the time of the "Reformation" M. had greatly declined: in 1549 there were barely three monks. But with the beginning of the 17th century its golden period began. Abbot Rainer of Landau (1623-37) succeeded in 1625, despite the strong resistance of the curias of Passau and Salzburg, in uniting not a few monasteries into a congregation, called that of M., obtaining its approval from Urban VIII (1626).

This Congregation of M. caused a splendid scientific activity, both sacred and secular, to flourish again in the affiliated monasteries, emulating the Maurists of France. M. reached its greatest splendor under Abbot Berthold Diermayr (1702-36), who had the monastery and the church rebuilt from scratch in their present forms, availing himself of the best artists of the period (J. Prandtauer, architect; J. M. Rottmayr, P. Troger, painters). From this was born that incomparable monumental complex, so wonderfully set within the Danube landscape. The church, the library, the imperial apartments, the great staircase, are among the most celebrated examples of Baroque architecture. The scientific activity of M. also reached its peak in these same years; it suffices to mention Fr. Anselm Schramb (d. 1720) and above all the Pez brothers (v.). Thanks to its gymnasium M. escaped the suppression of 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, preserves about 1,800 manuscripts and 800 incunabula; the Archive is very rich, the Museum and the collection of coins and medals are notable.

Giuseppe Löw