Admont Abbey

About

Founded in 1074, the current building dates back to 1865 when the original edifice was ravaged by fire. The first neo-Gothic sacred structure in Austria, the only thing that usurps its sublime setting on the Enns River is the interior. The library would make a king envious, with its 70,000 volumes, and magnificent frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte, depicting the stages of human knowledge up to the high point of Divine Revelation. Along with these masterpieces, there are also two major art collections: Historical, mainly featuring ecclesiastical art, and Modern Art, which was largely produced by young Austrian artists and often specially designed for the abbey premises. As a holy house of knowledge, the abbey also holds a Natural History Museum with over 250,000 insect specimens, including one of the largest collections of flies, in Europe.