Photos

This isn't really Vegas, it's just a splendid example of baroque architecture at the Melk Abbey in Austria! This church was the most marvelous display of riches in the baroque style that I have ever seen, especially having followed several gothic cathedrals in the days prior.

The first documentary reference to the name Melk dates from the year 831. It was in all probability at this time that a castle was built on the clifftop site of the present-day abbey. Originally the property of Bavarian Count Sizzo, the castle was captured by the Babenberg Margrave Leopold 1, who made it his main castle. From this date onwards Melk was inseparably bound up with the Babenberg dynasty, whose rule began in 976, and with their territory, the Marca Orientalis of the Holy Roman Empire. Known at the time as "Ostarrichi" (modern German: "Österreich"), it formed the nucleus of what we know today as Austria although it consisted only of a narrow strip of land on both banks of the Danube between the tributaries Enns and Traisen. As the Babenberg Margraves - later Dukes auf Austria - extended their territories eastwards they moved their centre of power accordingly. In 1100 Klosterneuburg near Vienna became the Babenberg residence. The castle site in Melk thus lost its strategic importance. it was in Melk, however, that the forebears of the ruling dvnasty had traditionally been interred, and they wished to see it preserved as a sacred site. This will have been the reason for the founding of the monastery.

On March 21, 1089 Babenberg Margrave Leopold II of Austria (1075-1095) made over the church and the castle on the cliff site of Melk to the Benedictine abbot Sigibold and his monks. Ever since that day monks have lived here in observance of the rules formulated by Saint Benedict of Nursia. Today the abbey building, whose exterior is painted entirely in yellow, is Austria's most famous example of baroque architecture. The abbey stands at the entrance to the Wachau, a picturebook stretch of the Danube Valley in Lower Austria.

Neither tripod or flash were used. There was enough ambient light from all the reflections of the gold that I was able to balance the camera on the back of a pew (flash was not allowed).