Garsten Abbey (German : Stift Garsten) is a former Benedictine monastery located in Garsten near Steyr in Upper Austria. Since 1851, the former monastery buildings have accommodated a prison.
Garsten Abbey (German : Stift Garsten) is a former Benedictine monastery located in Garsten near Steyr in Upper Austria. Since 1851, the former monastery buildings have accommodated a prison.
The abbey was founded in 1080–1082 by Ottokar II of Styria as a community of secular canons and as a dynastic burial place for his family. Together with his fortress, the Styraburg (Schloss Lemberg), it served as a focal point of Ottokar as ruler of the Traungau, and was endowed with significant possessions in the Traisen and Gölsen valleys, in Lower Austria, probably from the dowry of Ottokar's wife Elisabeth, daughter of the Babenberger Leopold II of Austria.
In 1107–1108 the monastery was made a priory of the Benedictine Göttweig Abbey; and became an independent abbey in 1110–1111. Its first and greatest abbot was Blessed Berthold of Garsten (d. 1142), a champion of the Hirsau Reforms, who is buried in the abbey church, and who built the abbey up to such a level that for centuries it was the religious, spiritual and cultural centre of the Eisenwurzen region. Monks from Garsten settled Gleink Abbey in the 1120s. [1]
From 1625 Garsten Abbey was a member of the Benedictine Austrian Congregation.
The abbey church still survives as a parish church. It was built by the Carlone family of master builders and is considered one of the most beautiful examples of High Baroque architecture in Austria. The church was designed by Pietro Francesco Carlone using the Jesuit church in Linz as a model, [3] and finished by his sons Carlo Antonio and Giovanni Battista, it was said to have one of the most magnificent interiors of the late Austro-Italian Baroque.
Particularly notable are the stucco work and the Dutch tapestries. The Losenstein chapel, the sacristy and the summer choir are also of special interest. [4]
A Christmas market is held in the "Am Platzl" Square in front of the abbey church in late November and early December. [5]
Garsten, like several other Benedictine monasteries in Austria, contained a theatre. [6] It was dismantled and moved to Steyr in 1789, where it was reassembled in the former church of the Celestine nuns, whose community had also been dissolved, as the town theatre, which operated until 1958. The building, still known as the Altes Stadttheater, is now a music school. [7]
Since 1850 the former monastery buildings have accommodated a prison, Justizanstalt Garsten. [2] This is one of the few prisons in Austria where life sentences are carried out. Austrian incest-rapist Josef Fritzl is serving his sentence there.
Leopold I of Styria, known as "the Brave" or "the Strong", served as the Margrave of Styria from 1122 until his death in 1129.
Ilmmünster Abbey was a collegiate foundation (Kollegiatstift) of canons, formerly a Benedictine monastery, in Ilmmünster, Bavaria, Germany. The church continues in use as a parish church.
Göttweig Abbey is a Benedictine monastery near Krems in Lower Austria. It was founded in 1083 by Altmann, Bishop of Passau.
Gleink Abbey was a Benedictine monastery located in the town of Steyr in Austria.
Lambach Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Lambach in the Wels-Land district of Upper Austria, Austria.
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Berthold of Garsten, O.S.B., also known as Berthold de Rachez, was a German Roman Catholic priest and a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was a noted abbot of a major monastic house in the region, and is revered for the holiness of his life by the Catholic Church.
Saint Blaise Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in the village of St. Blasien in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
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Engelszell Abbey was the last Trappist monastery in Austria. It is located near Engelhartszell an der Donau in the Innviertel in Upper Austria.
St. Burchard's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Würzburg, Germany, initially known as St. Andrew's Abbey. It was the first abbey established in Würzburg, founded ca. 750. In 1464, it was transformed into a Stift.
Gleinkersee is a mountain lake in Upper Austria located in the municipality of Spital am Pyhrn, north of the mountain area Totes Gebirge. Its elevation is 806 m (2,644 ft) above sea level of the Adriatic Sea. The name refers to the former owner of the lake, Gleink Abbey near Steyr.
Altzella Abbey, also Altzelle Abbey, is a former Cistercian monastery near Nossen in Saxony, Germany. The former abbey contains the tombs of the Wettin margraves of Meissen from 1190 to 1381.
Losenstein Castle or Burg Losenstein is a castle ruin in Upper Austria. It rises above the village of Losenstein on a 60-metre (200 ft) rock, composed of dolomite. It is one of the largest and oldest ruins of Upper Austria. Built in the 12th century by the Styrian Ottokars, the castle consists of the main building and one major ancillary tower. Beginning in 1252 the Lords of Losenstein (Losenstein) owned the castle.
St. George's Abbey is a monastic complex in the village of Sankt Georgen am Längsee, Carinthia, Austria. It celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 2003.
Pietro Francesco Carlone, or Peter Franz Carlone, from the Leoben branch of the Carlone family, was an early Baroque architect who was best known for building abbeys.
The St. Nikola Abbey is a former monastery of the Augustinian canons and today's mother house of the German Oratory Sisters in Passau, Lower Bavaria, Germany.
48°01′11″N14°24′37″E / 48.01972°N 14.41028°E
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