Mondsee Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Mondsee Reichskloster Mondsee
788–831 1142–1791
The Collegiate Church of St Michael, Mondsee — formerly the monastery church
Status	Imperial Abbey
Capital	Mondsee Abbey
Government	Theocracy
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Founded by Odilo,     Duke of Bavaria	748
• Gained Imp. immediacy     after deposition of Tassilo III	788
• Gifted to Regensburg Cathedral     by Louis the Pious	831
• Regained independence     under Abbot Conrad II	1142
• Mondseeland transferred     from Bavaria to Austria	1506
• Dissolved by Leopold II	1791
• Granted to Bavarian     field-marshal von Wrede	1810 – ca 1815
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Bavaria Bishopric of Regensburg Bishopric of Regensburg Archduchy of Austria
Today part of	Austria

Mondsee Abbey (German: Kloster Mondsee) was a Benedictine monastery in Mondsee in Upper Austria.

History

The region of the Mondseeland, in which Mondsee is located, was formerly part of Bavaria. Mondsee Abbey was founded in 748 by Odilo, Duke of Bavaria on the ruins of a Roman settlement.

According to legend, Duke Odilo was in the area with his wife and large entourage, got lost and was surprised by the night. He was at risk of falling high on a rock. But when the moon came out between the clouds, it made the water surface of the lake shine deep, which made the Duke aware of the danger. In gratitude for his salvation, Duke Odilo vowed to have a monastery built on the shores of the lake and gave the lake the name "Mondsee".

The abbey tradition was that the first monks came from the St Peter's abbey of Salzburg and others also from Monte Cassino in Italy.

In 788, after the fall of Duke Tassilo III, Mondsee became an Imperial abbey and over the centuries acquired extensive property. Mondsee had a very active scriptorium and became an important centre for book production in Upper Austria. Around 800 the Codex Millenarius, an illustrated Latin book of the Gospels was written at the abbey. In 831 King Louis the Pious gave the monastery to Regensburg Cathedral. Wolfgang of Regensburg, Bishop of Ratisbon, spent a year at Mondsee in 976.

It was not until 1142 that it regained its independence, under Abbot Conrad II, otherwise Conrad of Mondsee. Conrad, formerly a monk of Siegburg Abbey, had been abbot of Mondsee since 1127, and was extremely successful in defending and regaining the rights and possessions of the monastery, to the extent that in 1145 he was murdered by a group of nobles at Oberwang nearby. He was venerated as a martyr and declared Blessed.

Conrad was succeeded as abbot by Walter of Mondsee (died 17 May 1158), long remembered as a model by the community for his exemplary striving after virtue. He was buried in St. Peter's chapel in the abbey church.

In 1506 possession of the Mondseeland passed from Bavaria to Austria. In 1514 Abbot Wolfgang Haberl established the abbey grammar school. After a period of decline during the Reformation and the consequent disturbances, the abbey entered a new period of prosperity. Under Abbot Bernhard Lidl (1727–73) and especially in connection with the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of the foundation, there was extensive re-building of the church and the monastic premises. From 1773 the abbot was Opportunus II Dunkl, who was the last abbot of Mondsee: in 1791 the abbey was dissolved by Emperor Leopold II. Many of its manuscripts were transferred to what are today the Austrian National Library, the State Library of Upper Austria and the State Archive of Upper Austria.

From 1625 until its dissolution the abbey was a member of the Benedictine Austrian Congregation.

During the Napoleonic period the Mondseeland reverted to Bavaria for a few years. During that time, in 1810, the Bavarian Field Marshal Prince Karl Philipp von Wrede acquired the abandoned monastery (along with the nearby abbeys of Suben and Gleink), and used it as a castle. Wrede remained the owner even after the return of the territory to Austria and significantly developed the locality, for example by the construction of roads and the establishment of local cheese production. In 1905, on the death of Princess Ignazia von Wrede, Mondsee passed to the Counts Almeida, whose descendants sold it in 1985.

Basilica of St. Michael

The abbey church of St. Michael became the parish church. The altarpiece is designed as a giant reliquary, containing, among others, the jeweled skeleton of Abbot Konrad II. Pope John Paul II upgraded the church to a basilica in 2005.

Filmography

The wedding scene from The Sound of Music was filmed in the location.

Gallery

• 
  Mondsee Abbey
• 
  Flight into Egypt, high altar, Mondsee Abbey church
• 
  Fragment of a 9th-century Homiliarums (biblical interpretation) from Mondsee Abbey in Carolingian minuscule
• 
  St Michael parish church in Mondsee — interior with gothic vaults (15th century)
• 
  St Michael parish church in Mondsee — Organ (1674)
• 
  St Michael parish church in Mondsee — Altar of Annunciation (1680) by Meinrad Guggenbichler

See also

• List of Carolingian monasteries
• Carolingian art

External links

• (in German) Mondseeland website