Its renown is due to the celebrated provost (abbot) Gerhoch (q.v.), who, at the time of the Investiture Controversy, also played a notable part as a publicist. The nobleman Werner of R., having lost his wife and son, erected in 1084 near his castle a monastery for the Canons Regular, where he himself entered, dying there on 5 October 1088. But the true flowering of the abbey begins with the intervention of Conrad I, Archbishop of Salzburg, venerated as its second founder, who in 1122 rebuilt the convent and in 1126 dedicated the new church; he brought canons from the great abbeys of Saxony, where canonical life was in high repute. In 1624 a fire almost completely destroyed church and monastery; but immediately they were rebuilt, between 1625 and 1644 in simple Baroque forms, and then between 1663 and 1704 with all the splendor of full Baroque. The work is due to local masters who achieved, especially in the church and refectory, library and imperial halls, great artistic effects; the ensemble forms a jewel of harmonious landscaping. Notable are the altarpieces in the church and the many sepulchral slabs in the cloister. The abbey includes several incorporated parishes and carries on extensive ministry and works of agricultural and forest reclamation.
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