During my family's time in Austria, I decided to take them to the Melk Abbey, one of the most magnificent extant Baroque monasteries in the world, and home to an order of Benedictine monks, as well as a high school. A friend of mine taught there in 2010-2011.
The town of Melk is about 45 km northwest of Amstetten, and (candidly) the nicer of the two cities, though
Amstetten is the larger city (about 20,000 inhabitants to Melk's roughly 5,000). Melk was also a satellite site of the Mauthausen concentration camp during WWII. Surprisingly, it was spared from destruction during the war; most likely because it does not lie on a direct train line to Vienna, unlike Amstetten (which was destroyed - and why it's uglier).
St. Colomon is a patron saint of the Melk Abbey. His story is quite interesting. A Scottish pilgrim on his way to the Holy Land, Colomon was arrested in Austria, and, knowing no German, had no defense. He was hanged as a spy. According to the Abbey, he is patron to foreigners living or traveling in a strange land, cloven-hoofed animals, and can be invoked for girls of marriageable age looking for a husband, as well as those suffering from gout. St. Colomon is one of those all-purpose saints, it seems - and a cautionary tale as to why travelers should learn the language of their adopted country!
Here are some photos of the abbey and its surrounds:
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| built 1718 |
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| relics of St. Colomon |
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| model of the monastery |
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| view of the city of Melk |
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