Melk

Melk lies on the Danube below an abbey perched on a rocky height. The Babenberg margraves made their castle here a residence; in 1089 Leopold II gave it to Benedictine monks from Lambach. A school was attached to the monastery by the twelfth century, and its library became known for the manuscripts copied and collected there. The settlement below received market rights in 1227.

In the fifteenth century the abbey became the centre of the Melk Reform, a movement that renewed monastic life in Austria and southern Germany. The medieval complex was rebuilt between 1702 and 1736 to designs by Jakob Prandtauer, creating a great Baroque abbey above the river. Its educational standing helped it survive the closures of monasteries under Joseph II. In 1805 a fire at the abbey killed hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.