MELK ABBEY – WACHAU

Melk Abbey (German: Stift Melk) is a Benedictine abbey above the town of Melk, Lower Austria, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube river, adjoining the Wachau valley. The abbey was founded in 1089 when Leopold II, Margrave of Austria gave one of his castles to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey.

Today’s Baroque abbey was built between 1702 and 1736 to designs by Jakob Prandtauer. Particularly noteworthy are the abbey church with frescos by Johann Michael Rottmayr and the library with countless medieval manuscripts. In his novel The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco named one of the protagonists “Adso of Melk” as a tribute to the abbey and its famous library.