Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
Benedictine Abbey
(
www.stiftadmont.at
;
Admont 1; adult/child/family €9.50/5.30/22; 10am-5pm late Mar-early Nov, to 2pm early
Nov-late Dec, by arrangement late Dec-late Mar)
Admont's Benedictine Abbey is arguably Austria's
most elegant and exciting baroque abbey. It brings together museums, religion, and mod-
ern art and architecture into an award-winning cultural ensemble.
The centrepiece of the abbey is its
Stiftsbibliothek
, the largest abbey library in the world.
Survivor of a fire in 1865 that severely damaged the rest of the abbey, it displays about
70,000 volumes of the abbey's 200,000-strong collection, and is decorated with heavenly
ceiling frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte (1694-1783) and statues (in wood, but painted
to look like bronze) by Josef Stammel (1695-1765).
The abbey is also home to the
Kunsthistorisches Museum
(Art History Museum), featuring
rare pieces such as its tiny portable altar from 1375, made from amethyst quartz and
edged with gilt-silver plates; some Gerhard Mercator globes from 1541 and 1551; and
monstrances from the 15th and 16th centuries. Each year innovative temporary exhibi-
tions complement the permanent ones.
Another museum, the
Museum für Gegenwartkunst
(Museum for Contemporary Art), con-
tains works by about 100 mainly Austrian artists, and has pieces you can explore with
your hands. The
Naturhistorisches Museum
(Natural History Museum) began in 1674 with a
small collection and today includes rooms devoted to flying insects (one of the largest
collections in the world), butterflies, stuffed animals, wax fruits (bizarrely) and reptiles.
From the glass stairway and
Herb Garden
there are views to the National Park Gesäuse.
ABBEY
