!!!Admont

Admont, Styria, market town in the district of Liezen, alt. 
640 m, pop. 2,848, area 75.96 km%%sup 2/%; biseasonal 
tourist town (49,328 overnight stays) in the valley basin around the 
midpoint of the River Enns, western entrance to the Gesaeuse Valley. - 
Provincial centre for people with disabilities, Federal Institute of 
Alpine Agriculture, collegiate secondary school. Forestry and timber 
processing (sawmills), gypsum mining (Kematen); Admont Musiksommer 
(summer music festival). - One of the oldest settlements in Styria 
(first documented in 859 as Ademundi vallis); Benedictine monastery 
founded in 1074 (oldest monastery in Styria) by Archbishop Gebhard of 
Salzburg. Romanesque basilica (1121), 1276-1286 Gothic choir, changed 
to Baroque style 1615-26 and 1742-1776, church with two 72 m 
towers rebuilt after fire (1869); monastery closed down 1939-1945. The 
Baroque monastery library was built around 1774 by J. Hueber according 
to J. G. Hayberger's design; ceiling frescoes by B. Altomonte 
1776, limewood statues by J. T. Stammel, including "Die vier 
letzten Dinge" ("The Four Last Things", 1760); monastery library 
contains 150,000 volumes, 1,100 manuscripts and 
900 incunabula, making it the largest monastery library in the 
world. Treasury and altar paraphernalia chamber. Monastery also has 
art history and natural science collections; old monastery forge 
(1764) with collection of wrought-iron art. There are also a number of 
old buildings in the market town ("Huehnerspital", "Luerzerhaus", 
"Hofrichterhaus"), Protestant church (1929/1930), town hall (1736). 
Schloss Roethelstein (1655-1657), a palace on the slope of the 
Monastery Hill, is now a youth hostel. Frauenberg pilgrimage church 
(1683-1687) by C. A. Carlone; rich, figurative decorations by 
J. T. Stammel.

!Further reading
R. List, Stift Admont 1074-1974, 1974; J. Tomaschek, 
Benediktinerstift Admont, 1988; R. Scheb, Admont, eine 
Regionalgeographie, master's thesis, Graz 1990.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Admont|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]