Kloster Und

The former Capuchin monastery of Und stands on the Danube’s left bank just outside the old walls of Stein, now part of Krems in Lower Austria. Built between 1614 and 1659, it was a key Counter-Reformation pilgrimage site after three healings in 1643 drew attention to a Madonna brought from Prague and the spring water flowing nearby. The complex was planned by Mathias Piazolli, enlarged by Pietro Maino Maderno, and rebuilt after a fire by Domenico Sciassia, whose work was consecrated by Weihbischof Johann Geiger in 1659. The monastery’s long nave still links directly to the smaller chapel where the Madonna once stood. A black-marble high altar from the church was moved in 1796 to St Veit’s parish church in Krems, where it remains as a side-altar recalling the healing spring called Maria Bründl. The Latin name Sancta Maria ad undas points to the river that once lapped close by, while locals joke that Und simply means ‘between Krems and Stein’. Today the buildings house a restaurant and an events centre, but the 1756 ceiling fresco by Daniel Gran in the chapel survives as a reminder of the site’s artistic past. The complex sits within a quiet district of Krems that still carries the name Und, a small quarter of roughly 260 buildings and 2 100 residents.