August 7

a bumpy start to my day

As I walked out my apartment, my water bottle fell out of my fanny pack and ended up breaking. So as a result, I fell behind the rest of my classmates. I thought I still had time, and so I went to a nearby store on the way to the tram, and got a water bottle there. Then I pulled out Apple Maps and searched for ways to get to Klosterneuburg and catch up to the rest of my classmates. However, Apple Maps has a tendency to bamboozle me, and because everyone was already far ahead of me, the only source of """"reliable"""" information I had to find my way to Klosterneuburg was Apple Maps, and unfortunately, Apple Maps made me take this really dumb, stupid, and overly complicated route to Klosterneuburg. It's not that it was making me go the wrong way, it's just that it made me take the weird way. I could've gotten there way quicker if I had a classmate near me that could fact check Apple Maps, but I was all alone. Thankfully, I was able to meet up with everyone and didn't miss out on much (though I was absurdly late).

Epic pictures of Klosterneuburg

Klosterneuburg Abbey or Monastery (German: Stift Klosterneuburg) is a twelfth-century Augustinian monastery of the Catholic Church located in the town of Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria. Overlooking the Danube, just north of the Viennacity limits at the Leopoldsberg, the monastery was founded in 1114 by Saint Leopold III of Babenberg, the patron saint of Austria, and his second wife Agnes of Germany.

Leopold III (German: Luitpold, Latin: Leupoldus, 1073 – 15 November 1136), known as Leopold the Good, was the Margrave of Austria from 1095 to his death in 1136. He was a member of the House of Babenberg. He was canonized on 6 January 1485 and became the patron saint of Austria, Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Vienna. His feast day is 15 November.

Founding myth of Klosterneuburg

The founding myth of Klosterneuburg begins with Leopold III's engagement to Agnes. As he was doing his proposals, a gust of wind blew away the veil of Agnes. Everyone searched for the veil, but they couldn't find it. Despite this interruption, Leopold III and Agnes still got married anyways.

9 years later, Leopold III was hunting and then he found an Elder Tree. On this elder tree, in a weird coincidential turn of events, was the veil of Agnes. Leopold saw this as a gift of grace from God himself. It was at this spot where he found the veil that Klosterneuburg was supposedly founded.

Whether this actually happened is subject to debate. That said, in the treasury of Klosterneuburg, there's a scarf/veil that is believed to be the veil of Agnes, which is in the picture above.

Father Ambrose was our tour guide for this adventure. Ambrose is a priest at Klosterneuburg, and is a really cool and funny guy who I can vibe with. He wasn't born with the name Ambrose, but rather, he was given that name when he became a priest at Klosterneuburg. I believed he was named after Saint Ambrose of Milan, but don't quote me on that. He's pretty open-minded and was okay with all of our questions about Klosterneuburg, Catholicism, and religion...even the controversial ones. Almost all of the Catholic people I know are able to listen to my controversial questions without them getting hyper-offended, unlike *cough* Evangelicals.

more epic pictures of klosterneuburg

The Verdun Altar is the abbey’s most precious art possession and one of the most important artworks of the Middle Ages. It is commonly known as the “Verdun Altar” after its creator Nikolaus von Verdun, even though the Altar has nothing to do with the French city of that name and was made in Klosterneuburg. Today the Altar can be seen in St. Leopold’s Chapel and is the highlight of the Sacred Tour.

The Altar was completed in the year 1181, after about ten years’ work. It originally served to decorate the parapet of the pulpit in the abbey church. Following a fire in 1330, the work was converted into a winged altar and given its present form. The Altar comprises a total of 51 enamelled panels arranged in three horizontal layers, corresponding to the epochs of the history of salvation.

From a technical point of view, the work is an undisputed masterpiece. The enamel, which is extraordinarily resistant due to its high melting point, has survived intact for over eight centuries and shines with undimmed brilliance. Still greater is the altar’s artistic importance. It is the first work of the High Middle Ages to consciously draw on the style of antiquity, thus achieving a new faithfulness to nature. Owing to the Altar, his oldest preserved work, Nikolaus von Verdun can thus be regarded as a forerunner of the Gothic style.

The Babenberg family tree (1489/92), an 8-metre wide triptych originally set up at the tomb of St. Leopold for the benefit of pilgrims, is an outstanding work of art. This giant painting was commissioned by Klosterneuburg Abbey after the canonisation of Leopold III in 1485, to make the new patron saint known to the faithful and at the same time make them acquainted with his family history. The work on this huge triptych took until 1492 to finish. The middle part shows each male representative of the dynasty in a scene that is typical for his life (a number of historically valuable views of different towns, abbeys and castles are depicted as well). On the side wings, their wives and daughters are portrayed.

into the great outdoors of klosterneuburg

Back into the great indoors of klosterneuburg

Magnificent Marble Hall (above)

The Marble Hall, with its giant cupola and the spacious balcony, was intended as the central pavilion of the main facade of the Baroque imperial building. The hall was only completed in 1860. The cupola fresco, an allegory of the glories of the House of Austria, was painted by Daniel Gran in 1749.

The Imperial Rooms (above)

An imperial residence combining the functions of a abbey and a palace: that was the grand design which Emperor Charles VI had in mind for Klosterneuburg Abbey. However, during his lifetime only approximately one eighth of the planned construction was completed.

Starting in 1730, the most gigantic of all Baroque abbey complexes was to be built, following the model of the Escorial near Madrid. When the ambitious project was abandoned after the death of Charles VI ten years later, a mere eighth of the planned construction project had been realised, including the impressive Marble Hall and the magnificently furnished Imperial Rooms.

After the death of Charles VI in 1740, construction works were soon abandoned. It was not until 1834-1842 that one fourth of the planned complex, at least, was completed by architect Joseph Kornhäusel. Today, instead of the four planned courts there is only one, and just two cupolas rather than nine were built. Notably, they bear the two most important crowns: that of the Roman Emperor, and the Austrian Archducal Hat.

The Imperial Rooms as presented today were built as private quarters for Emperor Charles VI. However, they were only used once, on the occasion of a pilgrimage of the Court in November 1739. The rooms hold valuable pieces of furniture and paintings by Dutch, German and Italian masters.

KLOSTERNEUBURG TREASURY (ABOVE)

The treasury of Klosterneuburg consists of three rooms, two of them in contemporary design. The third one preserves the original treasure cupboards from 1676.

Indeed, the artefacts presented are first-class attractions: historically, they range from the days when the abbey was founded until 21st century, from the legendary, yet scientifically tested, genuine Veil of Margravine Agnes and an ivory box called the “Writing Set of St. Leopold” to the Regalia designed 1910 in art nouveau style by Anton Hofer, a student in Kolo Moser’s class; from an ivory crozier dating from the 14th century, reliquary caskets from Limoges and a chalice made of gold which was washed out of the Danube to the splendid monstrance, commissioned by the abbey in the jubilee year 1714 and made by Vienna’s leading goldsmith, Johann Baptist Känischbauer.

The Margrave’s Regalia is also on display. This robe designed for Mass was allegedly made from garments worn by Saint Leopold (in fact, it dates from the 14th century) and was the model for the heraldic emblem of the Province of Lower Austria. The collection contains other liturgical garments from one of the most important parament collections of Austria, which has been housed by the abbey almost unnoticed so far.

The major object of the treasure is the “holy crown of Austria”, the Austrian Archducal Coronet. It makes the Klosterneuburg treasure one of the most significant historical venues in Austria. Jewelled with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls, the Coronet has been preserved in the Abbey’s Treasure since 1616. Following the examples of the “holy crowns” of Hungary (Crown of Saint Steven) and Bohemia (Crown of Saint Wenceslas) it was also designed as a holy crown and an insignia of absolute power. In the same way as the other two crowns, the Archducal Coronet is also dedicated to a saint: the founder of the abbey and patron of Lower Austria, Saint Leopold.

Klosterneuburg wine gardens

After seeing all of Klosterneuburg, our adventure concluded with enjoying some quality wine at Klosterneuburg's vineyard. There, I enjoyed some quality Riesling and had a grand old time. Here's some epic pictures of the vineyard.

Today was a great day, though it did have a bit of a bumpy start.

Today, we didn’t have class, but we did have a tour At Klosterneuburg Abbey (Monastery). This place was founded waaayyyy back in the Middle Ages, and has seen a lot of history.

The hardest part was figuring out where it was and navigating the public transportation in the process. Apple Maps (which has questionable reliability), was making me take some over-complicated routes when I could’ve taken easier routes had I know they exist (which I did not know).

Other than that bumpy start, the day was great and I enjoyed my time at Klosterneuburg.

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