Monasteries of Austria

Few countries in Europe are as densely threaded with monasteries as Austria. Twenty-two of them have joined together as Klösterreich, nineteen within the country itself — Benedictines, Cistercians, Augustinian Canons, Premonstratensians.

What connects them is not the order but a continuity hard to grasp. Kremsmünster has kept the hours since 777, Göttweig since 1083, Heiligenkreuz without interruption since 1133 — through Reformation, Ottoman wars, Josephine dissolutions and two world wars. These houses were library, school, hospital and farm long before there were states to take that on.

They are not museums. Convents still live behind the baroque façades, and the gardens, libraries and wine cellars are open to visitors because hospitality is part of the rule — for the Benedictines it has been written down since the 6th century.