ST. LAMBRECHT. - Benedictine abbey, in Upper Styria, in the diocese of Seckau.
On the little church of St. Lambert Count Marquard of Eppenstein planned the erection of an abbey for the civilization of the country. Only his son, Henry III, Duke of Carinthia, was able in 1102-1103 to realize the idea. The monks came, it seems, from Sankt Blasien (Black Forest). In 1109 Paschal II took the abbey under the special protection of the Holy See, whereby the abbots derived from it quasi-episcopal rights over the vast territories that soon constituted the abbey's endowment. Among these are to be noted the immense expanses of Aflenz (Upper Styria); hence the foundation of the sanctuary of Mariazell (v.) and of Piber and Köflach (Middle Styria); territories to which the abbey devoted for centuries all its pastoral and cultural care. The period of S. L.'s greatest flourishing was the 14th-16th centuries.
S. L. forms a monumental and scenic complex that is extraordinarily picturesque. The church is Gothic, the convent pre-Baroque. The primitive Romanesque basilica was rebuilt in the forms of a Hallenkirche (the largest church in Styria) from 1311-86; the furnishings, however, are Baroque (stalls, choir books, altars). In the vicinity there arose (12th century) the Korner rotunda (ossuary) with a large crypt and, after 1424, the "parish" church of St. Peter, with a harmonious Gothic exterior and interior, with its furnishings intact. The monastery was then rebuilt from 1693 onward with sumptuousness.
A unique characteristic of S. L. is its Ornithological Museum, founded by Fr. Blasius Hanf.
Bibliography2 works
105; O. Wonisch, Das Benediktinerstift St. L., ibid. 1928; id., St. L. Quellen und Abhandlungen, Graz 1928; Cottineau, II, pp. 2755-2756; E. Schaffran, Kunstgeschichte Österreichs, Vienna 1948 (see indexes).
Giuseppe Löw