Abbey Road
Melk and Göttweig Abbeys
I’ve been enjoying life on the river and could sit here all day, watching the birdlife and boat traffic. There are not many tourist cruisers at the moment, but there are plenty of interesting cargo boats, some of them so long, they seem to go on forever. The Wingless Wonders, of course, also wanted to explore the local towns, Krems Und Stein. That’s not a typo. The town between Krems and Stein is called Und. I thought Stein was a pretty awful name. Imagine being called after a conjunction!
Ah, it turns out that the origin of the name was Sancta Maria ad undas, St. Mary at the waves. I can well imagine that back in ancient times, the level of river traffic here must have caused quite a few waves!
The old town centre of Krems itself is beautiful. I loved the ancient town gates, my favourites being the Steiner Tor in Krems and the Kremser Tor in Stein. They are like something out of a fairy tale. The whole stretch from Krems to Stein is steeped in history. I was amazed at how many of the ancient buildings were restored and in excellent condition, especially since they must have suffered flood damage many times over the centuries. Or perhaps that is exactly why they are in such good nick. They’ve most likely had to be restored on numerous occasions. Whatever the reason, you certainly get a good insight into how life might have been here back in medieval times.
I noticed that the ancient Salzstadeln, salt warehouses – or should they be called salt cellars? – were located quite close to the water’s edge. I hope they had good flood protection back then! But the Oldies eschewed the salt and went for the sweet instead – in the shape of Bailoni products. The world famous Bailoni Distillery is right here in the centre of Stein, so a visit was a must. It is astounding what can be made with the humble apricot: liqueurs, schnapps, brandies, but also jams, chocolates… You name it, if you can incorporate apricots in it, Bailoni are sure to make it. And my greedy owners are sure to demolish it before I get a chance to have a taste!
There are some wonderful modern buildings in ancient Stein too. I particularly liked the Caricature Museum with the facade that looks like a giant face, and the gravity defying Landesgalerie Niederösterreich (Lower Austrian Provincial Gallery) which reminded me a little of the MAAT Museum in Lisbon.
Göttweig Abbey had been staring down on us all week – from the top of the hill across the Danube – so I was glad when the Oldies finally decided to go up and have a look at it. It certainly is beautiful and it has been immaculately restored.
I believe that replacing the roofs alone was a project that cost millions and took the best part of 6 years. And that was with all the modern materials and equipment available these days. Imagine the time, skill and effort that were involved in building the entire abbey in the first place!
Just when I thought there couldn’t be any more grandiose buildings with fairy tale towers and twiddly bits, the Oldies set off to visit Melk Abbey. Now that takes the biscuit! Those monks certainly did things on a grand scale. I could hardly take in the sheer size of it, let alone all the fine details.
There is a lot more to the abbey than just the church, museum and stunning reception rooms and library. It’s good to see that it is very much in regular use – and in a great variety of ways. It is a concert and exhibition venue. It has formal gardens, a restaurant, a café… It even houses a secondary school. I know Her Ladyship went to school in an abbey in Ireland. Going by her stories of dingy, damp cloakrooms in the basement and flimsy pre-fab classrooms in the grounds, however, I suspect it was worlds apart from the opulence of this abbey school.
I particularly enjoyed wandering around the grounds with its beautiful gardens. I even got to hobnob with royalty outside the Garden Pavilion.
I also came across Saint Coloman, or at least a life-size wooden carving of him. There you go. You can’t escape the Irish! I was impressed to hear that he was the first patron saint of Austria and is still the patron saint of both Melk Abbey and the town of Melk. Ah, but then again, this unfortunate Irish pilgrim became a saint only after having met a particularly gruesome end…
Ok. Let me just put it on record now that this little wooden Irish bird has no aspirations whatsoever towards sainthood.
