Klosterneuburg

Friday, August 6

Today was an amazing experience!  We spent the afternoon and evening with the cannons of Klosterneuberg.  The building of the monastery began in 1114 when it was established by Leopold III of the Babenbergs.  Leopold wanted to establish the monastery on this spot as it was the place where legend has it that he found his wife’s wedding veil on an elderberry shrub illuminated by heavenly light from the Virgin Mary years after it had been lost.  At this time it was built right along the Danube river but the river was later rerouted so it is not longer along the river.  The monastery contains architecture from the Gothic and Baroque periods.  It was first built in the Gothic style but later the Habsburgs began to refurbish it in the Baroque style and dreamed of transforming it into their Escorial.  (They wanted their own Escorial so they could compete with their Spanish Habsburg cousins.)  Empress Maria Theresia stopped the refurbishment of Klosterneuburg as she instead centered her energies on building the summer palace of Schonburnn.  

It began with a tour of the monastery garden, which was modeled on an English garden.  These gardens were first built in 1850.  After we toured the gardens, we were greeted inside with sparkling wine and mimosas.  The sparkling wine they served was made by the monastery, which owns its own vineyards.  We were then split into smaller groups for the tour of the monastery.  The highlight of our tour was viewing the Verdun Altar.  While this can be seen by any tour group through the monastery, we were given the special privilege of entering into the small room that holds the Altar.  After our lesson on its historical significance, we were allowed to walk past it as we left the room.  

After our tour of the monastery, we went to a traditional Hiulegen and had dinner with six of the American cannons.  I ate at a table with Dom Kilian and had an interesting conversation about Austrian politics.  

When I first thought of going to a Catholic Monastery, I imagined the monks to focus their lives on purging themselves from worldly habits, otherwise I had no expectations about the lives of monks.  I was really shocked to find out that smoking and hard liquor were allowed at the monastery.  I figured that the cannons drank wine since it is used for religious purposes so it was not too shocking when they drank wine with us at dinner.  I was further shocked to learn that one of the cannons reads the German publication of GQ, which he said helps him to learn vernacular spoken German as opposed to written German, which is more commonly spoken at the monastery.