11 Days in Austria – Admont

In the first half of the day, we visited Hallstatt museum.  And then we drove to Admont.

Map of the area:

Why Admont? This is a small town in the Austrian state of Styria and it is best known for its abbey.

Admont Abbey

Admont Abbey (official site) is the oldest remaining Benedictine monastery in Styria. The abbey is famous for its library, the largest monastic library in the world. After seeing photos of the library and wanted to visit it. Especially after visiting Melk Abbey, where photography inside the museum, library and the church was prohibited.

We parked in Abbey’s free parking (there was plenty of space) and walked towards the entrance.

You can find many flowers around the Abbey. Narcissus:

The exact origin of the name Narcissus is unknown, but it is often linked to a Greek word for intoxicated (narcotic) and the myth of the youth of that name who fell in love with his own reflection.

Source: Wikipedia

Abbey building complex:

Regular entrance price does not allow to take photographs inside the library. If you want to shoot inside the library, then it costs an extra 5 euro. Of course, I paid since the main point of getting to Admont was to visit the library.

We started our tour at the museum rooms providing historical information about this place. After several rooms, we reached to the manuscript collection.

Popular Middle Ages saying: “As as armory is an essential part of every fortress, so also a library belongs in a religious foundation”.

In front of the manuscript room, you can find the library.

Admont Abbey Library

Not often, but sometimes when you enter a room you get a WOW effect.  This was one of those times.

First books were brought from Salzburg in 1074 (when the Abbey was founded).

The oldest volume is from the 9th century.

Admont possessed a writing room which produced many manuscripts for other houses as well. And in 1380, Admont called over 800 volumes its own. This was more than the Papal library in Rome.

The collection today comprises roughly 1400 codices, along with 530 incunabula (books printed before 1500).

The library was completed in 1776 and its 70 meters long, 14 meters wide and about 12 meters high. The largest monastery library in the world.

The ceiling:

In several places, you could see open books. Like this one:

View over the library (from the far end):

Continuing to the Museums

The library is located on the first floor. The second and the third floors are dedicated to different museums.

As you can see we started with religious artifacts.

Crozier of Abbot Leurzer (1707 – 1718):

Modern Art Collection

If you take a closer look at the following photo then you will notice that everything is made of parts of modern items. For instance, table legs are parts of a vacuum cleaner. The candle holder on the left is made out of spoons, forks and cheese graders.

Compact Cassette installation:

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum has a big insect collection with over 250,000 specimens. But you can also find mammals, birds and reptiles.

Scorpions:

In the bottom of the following image, you can see part or rock collection.

“Sunny stairs” with surrounding  nature:

Overall, the visit to Admont Abbey was very nice and the library… Well, if you are in the area, then definitely check it out.

The whole visit took us about 2.5 hours.

Heiliger Blasius

When we entered the abbey we saw a church next to it. It was Heiliger Blasius Church and was the time to visit it.

Interior:

Who was Saint Blaise? 

According to legend in Grande Encyclopédie:

Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebaste in Armenia, the city of his birth, who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles: from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.

Front facade:

Abbey’s Gardens

It was well after noon and we were hungry. We tried several restaurants, but they were closed for siesta. Luckily we found a restaurant very close to the Abbey and the food was good. Its name is Stiftskeller Admont.

After lunch, we returned for a short stroll to the gardens.

The Abbey (far left) and Enns River:

It was getting late and we still had to drive to our hotel. So we hit the road.

On our way, we saw the golden light. Thus, stopped somewhere in the mountains to take several photos. Here are they:

That’s all for today and follow to see where we headed next.

Note: all posts from the trip to Austria can be found at 11 Days in Austria.

Stay Tuned!

Additional Resources

Here are several resources that I created to help travelers:

• Trip Planner with Attractions and Itineraries is the page that will help you create your perfect travel route.
• What is the Best Time to visit Israel? To answer this question, we will consider the weather, prices, holidays, festivals, and more.
• Information and Tips for Tourists to Israel will answer the most common questions tourists have about Israel (including safety, passports, weather, currency, tipping, electricity, and much more).
• Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves include a complete list, top ten, map, tickets (Israel Pass, Matmon, combo), and campsites.
• If you are looking for things to do, here are the pages for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Sea Of Galilee, Akko (Acre), Eilat, Nazareth, Safed (Tzfat), and Makhtesh Ramon.