Klosterneuburg Excursion

Klosterneuburg (pop. 25,000) stands on the northeast edge of the Vienna Woods and is separated from the Danube by a broad grassy island. It attracts many visitors mainly on account of its monastery which was founded by the Augustinian Canons. There is an extensive range of buildings high up above the Danube. It originated as a monastery founded by the Babenberg Margrave Leopold III ("The Pious") in the 12th C. In 1730 Emperor Charles VI embarked on a program of large scale new building, but this was stopped again in 1755. Work was completed only in 1842, and then on a reduced scale. The buildings of the monastery consist of the monastery church with Romanesque features which was refurbished in Baroque style in the 17th C., the Leopold Chapel, a Romanesque-Gothic Cloister, the Leopold Courtyard and the monastery vaults. The famous "Verdun Altar" in the Leopold Chapel is especially noteworthy. It is made up of 51 enameled panels by the goldsmith Nikolaus of Verdun and dates from 1181. This reredos for a funerary chapel is among the finest examples of High Medieval goldsmith's and enamelware's work. Following a fire in 1329 the panels were collected to form the present Gothic reredos. The Leopold Chapel leads into the beautiful Gothic Cloisters, the 600-year-old Freisinger Chapel and the monastery lapidarium where, with other examples of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture, the sandstone "Klosterneuburg Madonna", a life-size figure dating from about 1310 is preserved. The new monastery building erected during Charles VI's reign in the Baroque style has two copper domes, one of which is surmounted by the German Imperial Crown, the other by the Lower Austrian Archducal Bonnet. Among the features shown by guides when a conducted tour is taken are the Baroque main staircase, the Marble Hall with frescoes by Daniel Gran, the Imperial Apartment, the Tapestry Room and the Treasury. The monastery museum has a rich collection including a Habsburg genealogy, the Albrechts Altar which was given in 1438 and valuable medieval pictures. The monastery also possesses vaults. In the monastery cooperage, the "Thousand bucket barrel" dating from 1704 can be seen. Each year on St Leopold's Day, November 15, there is a great barrel rolling carnival.