St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal

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St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal (Stift Sankt Paul) is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

1 History
2 Abbey church
3 Art collections and library
4 Abbey school
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The abbey was founded in 1091 by the Spanheim Dukes of Carinthia on the site of their ancestral castle.

In 1787 Emperor Joseph II dissolved it, but in 1809, under the Prince-Abbot Dr. Berthold Rottler, monks from St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest, which had also just been dissolved, moved into the premises. In 1940 the abbey was dissolved again by the National Socialists but the monks were able to return when it was reopened in 1947. Today it is the oldest operational monastery in Carinthia.

From 1641 the abbey was a member of the Salzburg Congregation, which in 1930 was merged into the present Austrian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.

[edit] Abbey church

Within the abbey precinct there is a Romanesque basilica dating from the end of the 12th century. After a fire in 1367 a Gothic vaulted ceiling was added, painted with 44 frescoes by the South Tyrolean masters Friedrich and Michael Pacher.

The interior decoration of the church by the Styrian artist Philipp Jakob Straub dates from the 18th century. Beneath the Baroque high altar is a crypt, in which are the coffins of 13 members of the Habsburg family.

[edit] Art collections and library

The abbey possesses one of the largest collections of art in Europe, including graphics, coins, sacred art, and paintings by among others Rubens, Van Dyck, Dürer, Holbein and Kremser Schmidt, as well as an extensive and important library of over 180,000 books and manuscripts from between the 5th and 18th centuries.

[edit] Abbey school

The Benedictines of St. Paul also run a secondary school ("Gymnasium").

[edit] References

Schatzhaus Kärntens. Landesausstellung St. Paul 1991. 900 Jahre Benediktinerstift. Band I: Katalog. Universitätsverlag Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1991. ISBN 3-85378-376-7
Schatzhaus Kärntens. Landesausstellung St. Paul 1991. 900 Jahre Benediktinerstift. Band II: Beiträge. Universitätsverlag Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1991. ISBN 3-85378-377-5
Österreichische Kunsttopographie. Band 37: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Benediktinerstiftes St. Paul im Lavanttal und seiner Filialkirchen, ed. Karl Ginhart. Vienna 1969.