Zwettl Abbey church

The Stiftskirche Zwettl stands at the eastern end of a gently sloping courtyard on the northern edge of Zwettl Abbey in the town of Zwettl, Lower Austria. The church, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, belongs to the Zwettl deanery in the Diocese of St Pölten and forms part of the protected monument ensemble with the monastery. Its Gothic Cistercian structure from the 14th century is a three-aisled hall church with an ambulatory choir and a ring of chapels, recognised as a principal work of Austrian High Gothic. Unlike many Cistercian churches it has an ambulatory choir rather than a rectangular one, a feature shared with Clairvaux. The west front, added in the Baroque period, is a masterpiece by Matthias Steinl in collaboration with Joseph Munggenast, while the tall tower breaks Cistercian principles yet reflects common Baroque practice. Inside, visitors find the late-Gothic high altar installed in 1516–1525 under Abbot Erasmus von Leisser, replacing an earlier altar lost in the battle of 1427. The main organ, built between 1728 and 1731 by Johann Ignaz Egedacher of Passau, ranks among the largest and most costly organ projects in Vienna and Lower Austria. The unified Baroque furnishings were created with leading masters of the Austrian High Baroque.