Admont Abbey

Dedicated to Saint Blaise, Admont Abbey was founded in 1074 by Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg on land left by Hemma of Gurk, The economic crises of the 1930s forced the abbey to sell off many of its art treasures, and during the period of the Nazi government the monastery was dissolved and the monks evicted. They were able to return in 1946 and the abbey today is again a thriving Benedictine community. From 1641, the abbey was a member of the Salzburg Congregation, which in 1930 was merged into the present Austrian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. ==Abbey church==

The church was designed by the architect Wilhelm Bücher to replace the former church after the fire of 1865. The two west towers are 67 metres tall, and the facade contains figures of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica. The figure of the church's patron, Saint Blaise, tops the pinnacle of the west door. The interior consists of a central aisle and two side aisles, off each of which are five side chapels and six altars. The picture on the altar of Mary, Maria Immaculata, is by Martino Altomonte (1657–1745). A statue of Saint Blaise stands on top of the high altar of white Carrara marble. The choir is decorated with early 18th century tapestries by Benno Haan. In the Chapel of St. Benedict is a Baroque Corpus Christi from the workshop of Johann Meinrad Guggenbichler. == 21st century ==

As of July 2025, the community at Admont consisted of 26 monks and the abbot was Gerhard Hafner. ==Library==

The library hall, built in 1776 to designs by the architect Joseph Hueber, is 70 metres long, 14 metres wide and 13 metres high. It contains c. 70,000 volumes of the monastery's entire holdings of c. 200,000 volumes. The ceiling consists of seven cupolas, decorated with frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte. The abbey possesses over 1,400 manuscripts as well as over 900 incunabulae. ==Burials==

• Gebhard of Salzburg • Engelbert of Admont • Anastasia of Kiev • Conrad of Babenberg ==Museums==

Since the Baroque period the abbots had accumulated a collection of "curiosities" and scientific specimens of various sorts, which were entirely destroyed in the fire of 1865. As part of the reconstruction, Father Gabriel Strobl determined to replace the lost collections, and so formed the nucleus of the modern museums. Father Strobl was himself a botanist but also worked on building up the insect collection, so much so that he became one of the great entomologists of his day. The Natural History museum now contains over 250,000 insect specimens, including one of the three largest collections of flies, or Diptera, in Europe. ==Gallery==

StiftAdmont.jpg|Admont Abbey StiftAdmont2008.JPG|Admont Abbey 001 Admont - J.F.Kaiser Lithografirte Ansichten der Steiermark 1825.jpg|Lithograph by Joseph Franz Kaiser, 1825 Admont um 1840.1.jpg|Oil painting by Anton Schiffer, 1840 Handschriften.jpg|Handschriften und Inkunabeln Pater Engelbert.johnsbach.holzhack3.jpg|Ora et labora Admont Hemma 2.jpg|Hemma Statue Admont 5180.JPG|Rosarium Admont Kreuzigung.JPG|Admont Crucifixion ==Further reading==