Kremsmünster#

Kremsmuenster, Upper Austria, market town in the district of Kirchdorf an der Krems, alt. 384 m, pop. 5,963, area 42.11 km2, industrial and commercial centre situated on the River Krems.- Sports hall, vocational school for joiners, abbey boarding school (Gymnasium), retreat house run by Benedictine nuns. 2,970 people employed (1991), 62% of them in the production sector (including the building industry): glass industry with industrial glass production (especially bottles) and Gablonz glass (crystal chandeliers, gift articles), synthetics industry ( Greiner Holding AG), main site of the RohoelaufsuchungsGmbH (petroleum prospecting) in Upper Austria (in the cadastral district of Krift), summer tourism (21,343 overnight stays).- Monastery founded in 777; collegiate church, a Late Romanesque three-aisled pier-type basilica with a Benedictine choir (1232-1350), alterations in Baroque style by C. A. Carlone from 1613, most alterations performed between 1680 and 1720, remarkable stuccoes by G. B. Colombo and G. B. Barberini, frescoes by the Garbenberger brothers; interior (1682-1720): sculptures by M. Zuern the Younger and J. Pfaffinger, paintings by K. Loth and J. K. von Reslfeld. Gunther barrow (around 1304), Lady Chapel (1676/77); the treasury contains the famous Tassilo chalice (8th century) and the Tassilo candelabrum; 17th century monastery, altered by C. A. Carlone and J. Prandtauer into a symmetric Baroque abbey from 1680 until after 1729. In the abbot's wing is a prelate's chapel with an altarpiece by J. M. Rottmayr (1712), rich collection of works of art and arms; the library contains more than 100,000 volumes, 792 incunabula, 416 manuscripts and 2 evangelistaries from the 8th and 9th centuries, built in 1675, stucco ornaments by G. Alfieri (1684) with frescoes by C. Lederwasch (1692); in the household section is a remarkable fish tank by C. A. Carlone (1692) and J. Prandtauer (1717); arms hall; "Mathematischer Turm", 50 m high, former astronomical observatory (1749-1758), built by A. Desing, with natural history collection; garden house (1640/1641, called "mosque") by D. F. d'Allio.- Museum for brass music at Kremsegg Palace. Late Gothic town houses (e.g. the town hall) in the town centre; Baroque Calvary church (1736-1738) by J. M. Prunner, with stairway and stations of the cross, altarpiece by B. Altomonte. Subsidiary church in Kirchberg (parish church until 1784), early Rococo building from 1753/1754); Heiligenkreuz pilgrimage church (1687-1690, by C. A. Carlone).

Literature#