The abbey is situated on the edge of a hill, on the site of the burial of the martyr St Florian and his companions (m.
Sankt Lambercht — Site of the monastery built by D. Sciassia of Rovereto, begun in 1639.
in 304. Perhaps a cell from Merovingian times, a monastery from the age of Charlemagne, under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops of Passau, to whom the region then belonged (and until 1778). Bishop St Altmann entrusted the monastery in 1071 to the Augustinian Canons Regular, and to it were soon joined many parishes. It celebrates the recluse Wilburgis, who lived walled up near the church from 1248 until her death in 1289 (Life of the contemporary abbot, Eynwick, in H. Pez, Script. rer. Austr., II, Leipzig 1725, pp. 216-75). During the Middle Ages it was also a destination of many pilgrimages to the tomb of the holy martyr. The monastery has its own theological faculty, incorporates 33 parishes, and continues its traditional sacred and cultural vocation.
The fame of St Florian rests upon the grand complex of its Baroque construction, among the finest examples of monumental ecclesiastical art. The church, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, preserves pre-Romanesque remains (perhaps a crib from the 9th century) and Gothic ones (dedication of the Gothic basilica in 1291); it was then rebuilt and decorated in an exuberant yet dignified Baroque style from 1686 onwards, through the work of A. C. Carlone (his masterpiece), continued after his death (1708) by G. Prandtauer (builder of Melk), with even more ingenious modifications. Work continued until about the middle of the 18th century with the contribution of numerous Italian and local artists, including the two Altononte brothers. In the church, particular note should be taken of the organ, by the great builder F. Krisman (1770-83); A. Bruckner served as organist there (1845-55); see below. The two sacristies, jewels of the Baroque, are rich in precious liturgical vestments. Among the most admired constructions are Prandtauer’s staircase (1706-13); the ground-floor and upper halls, with grand frescoes and precious marbles; the Library (1744-50) with about 120,000 volumes, including 885 manuscripts from the 9th century and more than 800 incunabula; the imperial apartments, a series of 16 splendid rooms of art and monuments, which served Pius VI during his journey to Vienna; and large collections of art, paintings, coins, etc.
The abbey has almost continuously boasted members distinguished in sacred and profane learning; but a singular glory comes to it from the composer and organist A. Bruckner, who by testament wished to be buried there; St Florian is often the centre of musical celebrations, even on an international scale.
Finally, to be noted is the arrangement, still in the church’s crypt, of about 6,000 skeletons believed to come either from the Roman cemetery of Laureacum (7 km distant) or, more probably, from a battlefield of the age of the barbarian migrations.