St. Lambert's Abbey

St. Lambrecht’s Abbey stands in the village of Sankt Lambrecht, high in the Styrian Grebenzen nature reserve. The monastery sits at 1,072 metres above sea level, surrounded by the Zirbitzkogel-Grebenzen nature park. Its buildings and gardens form part of this protected landscape. The complex includes two churches and several museums. The abbey was founded in 1076 by Count Markward IV of Eppenstein. The abbey has a long and varied history. It was dissolved between 1786 and 1803, then seized by the National Socialists in 1938. From 1942 to 1945 it served as a storage site for the Mauthausen-Gusen camp. The monks returned in 1946 and restored the buildings. During work on the Abbey Church in the early 1970s, remarkable frescoes from the late 15th century were uncovered on the north wall. Visitors find early Baroque monastic buildings and a Gothic Abbey Church. The monastery museum holds an art collection, while the folklore and bird museums display items collected by two monks. The frescoes show scenes from the Old Testament, the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus, and Christ as the Word made flesh. Saint Peter’s Church, founded in 1424, also forms part of the complex. The abbey remains an active Benedictine house within the Austrian Congregation.