Welcome to Melk, Austria

May 18, 2024

We’ve arrived in the homeland of our Cruise Director, Niki Nicholas, and the joy and pride he feels being here is infectious. Ken started is morning at the Melk Abbey while Pam caught up on the blog, and then we journeyed into town together for some of the most delicious pork we ever put in our mouths!

Pam’s day started with sneak peak of the Abbey, visible through the early morning mist, just as we exited our latest lock.

In the 11th century, Leopold II of Babenberg gifted what was then a palace to the Benedictine monks, who turned it into a fortified abbey. The current version of the abbey was created in 1702-1736, but the monastic community to which it belongs has been around for more than 900 years. Today it oversees 23 parishes, most located far away, and continues its commitment to community through both its educational activities and a variety of social programs. Black-robed monks still stroll the grounds, alongside the 700 students who attend its prestigious monastery school, and 930 or so students who attend the now state-subsidized secondary school. Niki, our Cruise Director attended secondary school here, but lasted only nine months before getting kicked out (he says the Catholics weren’t ready for him). 😂

Since 1966 the abbey has operated an exchange program with the American Benedictine School of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville Township, MN.

The first picture below was taken near the bridge where we were standing in the first picture of today’s post. To gain entrance to the interior of the abbey you have to walk through a couple courtyards (there are several) before you find the stairs that will lead you into the abbey itself. Taking pictures inside is strictly forbidden, but you know Ken. He managed to get a few anyway – and didn’t get caught.

This model gives you a sense of how large the grounds are.

The abbey contains many valuable pieces of art. The crucifix in the second picture is thought to date back earlier than the 1200s. What appears to be a gold face is said to contain the top of the head of a female saint, probably St. Agnes of Bohemia, who died in 1282. In the second row of photos, you see a cross whose center holds a splinter from the actual cross on which Christ was crucified.

The views from the church, overlooking the cliff, are spectacular.

It is hard to say which is more grand, the library, which owns more than 100,000 works of art, including 1,800 manuscripts dating back to the 9th century – mostly sermons and devotional literature – only 16,000 of which are on display…