Zwettl Abbey
Stift Zwettl
image	location
Cistercians
Patron:	Bernhard of Clairvaux
Location:	Zwettl/Austria
Date of Foundation:	1138
Style:	mixed, Romanesque - Baroque
First Abbot:	Herrmann, monk from Heiligenkreuz
Current Abbot:	Wolfgang (Peter) Wiedermann

Zwettl Abbey is a Cistercian monastery located in Zwettl

Zwettl

Zwettl is a town and district capital in Lower Austria. It is chiefly known as the location of Zwettl Abbey, first mentioned in October 1139.- Geography :...

 in Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

, in the Diocese of St. Pölten.

History

Zwettl Abbey was founded in 1137 by Hademar I of Kuenring, with Herrmann, a monk of Heiligenkreuz Abbey

Heiligenkreuz Abbey

Heiligenkreuz Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria...

, as its first abbot (1137-47). It was a daughter house of Heiligenkreuz, of the line of Morimond

Morimond Abbey

Morimond Abbeyis a religious complex in Parnoy-en-Bassigny, Haute-Marne department, in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. It was the fourth of the four great daughter abbeys of Cîteaux Abbey, of primary importance in the spread of the Cistercian Order, along with La Ferté to the south,...

. The foundation was confirmed by Pope Innocent II

Pope Innocent II

Pope Innocent II , born Gregorio Papareschi, was pope from 1130 to 1143, and was probably one of the clergy in personal attendance on the antipope Clement III .-Early years:...

 (1140) and over the course of time by several other popes and emperors. Several members of the family of the founder were buried here.

The monastery was constructed, as Cistercian houses often were, in a river valley, in this case in a bend of the River Kamp. Extensive buildings were erected, and the church, chapter-room, and dormitory were blessed in 1159, though the entire monastery was not completed until 1218. Zwettl Abbey soon became one of the most important monasteries in the order.

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the abbey was repeatedly plundered, especially in 1426, when 4,000 Hussites sacked and burned it down. It was rebuilt under Abbot John (1437-51). Near the end of the fifteenth century, over forty monks lived in Zwettl Abbey. Under the Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 the community was reduced to six monks and one secular priest. By an imperial rescript the monastery was forced to sell one quarter of its large possessions. It flourished again under Abbot Erasmus (1512-1545) and his successors during the Baroque period, notwithstanding the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 and the Turkish invasion, during which it was saved from destruction by the friendship of the Count of Thurn for Abbot Siegfried.
During the administrations of Abbot Linck (1646-71), author of the Annales Austrio Claravallenses, and Abbot Melchior (1706-1747), who rebuilt a great part of the abbey and enriched it with many precious vessels and vestments, it reached its zenith. Abbot Melchior encouraged study and opened schools of philosophy, theology and so on in the monastery. During the period of Josephinism

Josephinism

Josephinism is the term used to describe the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor . During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy , he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state...

 Abbot Rainer was obliged to resign, to be succeeded by a commendatory abbot

Commendatory abbot

A commendatory abbot is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey in commendam, drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline...

 (1786), but after 1804 the community was allowed to elect its own abbot. From 1878 the abbey was administered by Abbot Stephen Roessler, the sixty-first from its foundation. Besides him two other noted historians were members of Zwettl during the nineteenth century: Johann von Frast (d. 1850) and Leopold Janauschek

Leopold Janauschek

Leopold Janauschek was an Austrian Cistercian historian.-Life:Janauschek was born at Brünn, Moravia. In 1846 he received the religious habit at the Cistercian Zwettl Abbey, Lower Austria, where he was professed in 1848. His superiors then sent him to their house of studies at Heiligenkreuz Abbey...

, the author of Originum Cisterciensium.

Buildings

The monastery contains buildings of all architectural styles from Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 to Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

.
The modern form of the premises is the result of the Baroque refurbishment in the 18th century, which involved the reconstruction of the principal buildings. Among other parts the western tower was constructed by Josef Munggenast

Josef Munggenast

Josef Munggenast was an Austrian architect and masterbuilder of the Baroque period.Munggenast was born in Schnann in Tyrol, the nephew of Jakob Prandtauer, who advanced his career and whose influence marked his style for the whole of his life.From 1717 Munggenast was master mason in Sankt Pölten...

 to plans by Matthias Steinl

Matthias Steinl

Matthias Steinl was an Austrian painter, architect and designer, and one of the country's best known Baroque sculptors...

. Only one other tower in Lower Austria is higher than this building's 82 meters. Another part of this construction period is the library, which contains frescoes by Paul Troger

Paul Troger

Paul Troger was an Austrian painter, draughtsman and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger's illusionistic ceiling paintings in fresco are notable for their dramatic vitality of movement and their palette of light colors.Paul Troger’s style, particularly in his frescoes, dominated Austrian...

.

From 1728 to 1731 Johann Ignaz Egedacher from Passau constructed the famous Egedacher Organ, one of the biggest and most expensive organs of the region of Vienna and Lower Austria.

Present day

The abbey's library contains over 60,000 volumes, 500 incunabula, and 420 manuscripts, the most famous of which is the Zwettl Stiftungsbuch ("cartulary").

The community now consists of 23 monks, who have care of fourteen incorporated parishes and four others. The monastery makes its living from a forest of about 2,500 hectares, a fish farm of 90 hectares, a farm of 110 hectares and the vineyards of Schloss Gobelsburg

Schloss Gobelsburg

Schloss Gobelsburg is a winery in the Kamptal wine growing region in Lower Austria, some 50 miles to the north west of Vienna. The esteate produces both red and white wines.-History:...

with about 35 hectares.

The monastery buildings now contain a school.

Every year since 1983 an organ festival has been held here.

Sources/External links

• Zwettl Abbey official website