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Monastery · Dürnstein, Lower Austria

Dürnstein Abbey

Stift Dürnstein

Dürnstein Abbey (Stift Dürnstein) is the former Augustinian canons' monastery with the blue-and-white church tower in Dürnstein in the Wachau, Lower Austria, owned by Herzogenburg Abbey and now shown as a museum.

Why go

This record is the former monastery and its church, not the Dürnstein castle ruins. The abbey's own site (in German) says its history began with a Lady chapel endowed by Elsbeth von Kuenring in 1372, that Augustinian canons from Wittingau in Bohemia made it a monastery in 1410, and that the Baroque rebuilding was led by provost Hieronymus Übelbacher (1710 to 1740); it says the tower, dated 1733, has become the landmark of the Wachau with its blue and white colours. The monastery was dissolved under Joseph II on 7 January 1788 and given as a parish to Herzogenburg Abbey, to which it still belongs; the abbey church has also been a parish church since 1745. Since 2019 the canons of Herzogenburg, as owners, with the province of Lower Austria and a supporting association, have shown the exhibition 'Entdeckung des Wertvollen' (Discovery of the Precious) there, and the site says all group tours must be booked in advance.

Near Dürnstein Abbey