Melk, Benedictine Monastery

(3 photos)
We left Vienna and were driving west on the Autobahn when we saw a beautiful large building off to the right. We got off the freeway and went to visit the Monastery and the Cathedral in Melk. It sits on the top of a hill overlooking the Danube River, with the town all around at the base of the hill. We looked here and there, but didn't spend the time it would take for the official tour of the building.

A few days later Emmy noticed in her notebook we were to be sure and visit Melk, as Josef Mungenast, one of her ancestors, was the architect of the Benediktinerstift Melk (Melk Benedictine Monastery). One of the post cards we bought had his name on the back, but we didn’t noticed it in time. Jakob Prandtauer, the original architect at Melk, died in 1726, so his nephew and pupil Joseph Mungenast supervised the completion of Melk. Joseph and Emmy’s Grandfather were both born in Schnann, Austria, and the cousins have confirmed that they are related.

Another member of that family, Sigmund Mungenast, a descendant of the famous family of Tyrolean architects who had worked on the building of the Melk monastery in Austria, was one of the artists and craftsmen who were summoned from all over Europe to work on the Echternach Abbey in Luxembourg.
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A few years later we arrived in Melk, determined to tour the Benedictine Monastery this time. This is a beautiful building that can be seen from a great distance since it’s high on a hill above the Danube River. Emmy introduced herself to the guide, and Mungenast (her maiden name) was mentioned many times during the tour. This is an interesting monastery, but the most beautiful part is Melk’s Baroque Cathedral or chapel. We won’t even try to describe the beauty and splendor of all the columns, statues, and gold decorations in the Cathedral, it’s exceptional. How something so extreme can look so beautiful!
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The organ in the Cathedral at Melk is rather new. It replaced the old organ which was ruined when someone tried to fix it. They have an old clock that suffered from the same TLC (terrible loving care). Melk’s library is also exceptional. They painted the ceiling so it looks like it was a continuation of the walls and it looks much higher than it really is. Trompe-l’œil, to fool the eye, an optical illusion.