Visiting R 64 16

The Abbey

I first saw Melk Abbey when driving to Vienna. It is almost impossible to miss it, sitting on the hill not to far from the highway. I knew, I had to visit it. Obviously, this place has a long history and I am not going to repeat what you can also read in Wikipedia. I am going to focus on the things that impressed me the most.

The monastery consists of many beautiful baroque buildings. All the more surprising are the two bastions at the entrance, which do not fit into the picture at all. One of them is a “real” bastion from 1650. It is filled with soil and therefore cannot be entered. The bastion on the other side was built for the symmetrical impression ~100 years later. As it is decoration it can be entered and is now housing exhibitions.

The next thing I find special is the abbey’s color. The combination of yellow and white looks friendly, lively and inviting. It is just looking this “fresh” because of its recent renovation.

Also, when doing the restauration in the 1980s they decided to not try to restore the irrecoverable paintings in the Prelate’s courtyard but created modern versions of it. They are obviously different but make this place more vibrant.

The interior is amazing. I am not able to share pictures as it is not allowed to take photos inside, so please check Wikipedia.

How to produce a saint

One very crazy story is the one about Saint Coloman of Stockerau. Imagine the following: you see a guy, dressed differently, speaking an unknown language. You think it is a great idea to torture and hang him because you think he is a spy. Then miracles happen and you go “damn it, we’ve killed a saint”, let’s grab his bones and worship him from now on.

I think it takes a lot of self-confidence to first kill someone and then trust that he is watching over you as a saint.

How to showcase even more saints

In the church houses two skeletons, richly decorated with clothing and jewelry. They are casually lying behind glass in a way you would expect them to just rest a little while looking at the visitors. It feels a little creepy, like the experience in Wasserburg.

Those two are catacomb saints, something I have never heard of before. Catacomb saints are unknown people from the time of early Christianity. Their remains were removed from the catacombs in Rome between the 16th and 19th centuries. Those two came to Melk as a donation in the 18th century. As neither their names nor their biographies are known, they are called Friedrich and Clemens.

The city Melk itself

In the old part of the city, you will see interesting houses. Either because of their architecture or because you can glimpse into the past with some old paintings remaining.

Also, you can get a dose of useless knowledge and still admire the dedication to point out the fact.

All the cities along rivers have high water marks. But this is a very creative way of showing them indicating how far the Danube jumped out of its bed.

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