REIN (REIN). - A Cistercian abbey near Graz, in Styria, diocese of Seckau, formerly Salzburg.
A daughter house of Ebrach, of the Morimond line, founded by Leopold I, margrave of Styria, about 1124, it soon became the mother house of other Austrian and Hungarian abbeys. In 1480 the Turks burned the church and convent, which rose again larger and more beautiful; but from 1737 the church was almost entirely rebuilt in Baroque forms; the monastic buildings too underwent alterations and reconstructions, forming today an imposing complex, with several particularly decorative rooms (the two refectories, the library, the prelature). The monastery has the care of 12 parishes, among them the sanctuary of Maria Strassengel, near Graz, with its celebrated Gothic church, of three naves, with three choirs, an octagonal bell tower, wonderfully filigreed, and rich sacred furnishings; beside it stands a kind of castle to protect the access to the Valley of R. For centuries the abbey has maintained a boarding school for boy singers.