Nestled in the fertile landscape of the lower Lavant Valley, St. Paul's Abbey rises on a rock cone. Where once a Roman fort and later the castle of the Spanheimers stood, Benedictine monks from the famous Hirsau monastery settled in 1091. An eventful history knows times of prosperity and decline.
The former representative rooms of the monastery now serve as the site of the abbey museum, which is one of the most valuable private collections in Austria in terms of its importance. In the halls of the museum, some of which are equipped with valuable wooden ceilings from the 17th century, outstanding art treasures of European quality are displayed.
A total area of almost 4,000 m² is available for the museum area of the monastery. The state-of-the-art infrastructure enables the museum to run smoothly, which, in addition to the quality of what is on display, also enables professional exhibitions.
The spectrum of objects on display ranges from medieval goldsmith's work and textiles to Renaissance and Baroque treasures, as well as one of the most important manuscript collections in the world.
A valuable picture gallery with works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Holbein and Austria's last great baroque painter, Kremser Schmidt, with an adjoining collection of prints and drawings (approx. 30,000 sheets) allows a foray into European art history.
Gardens (baroque garden and herb garden)
The gardens invite you to linger and relax. In the baroque garden, the garden art of the monks is illustrated, while in the herb garden, the "Hildegardium", the knowledge of the cultivation and use of herbs for the well-being of the people is demonstrated.
Romanesque Basilica
No one should leave St. Paul without visiting the imposing medieval basilica from the 12th century. The splendour of the architecture with its elaborate capitals, the impressive fresco decoration (Michael Pacher, Thomas von Villach, Master Heinrich von Gurk) and the dignified furnishings form the dignified setting of the church, in whose crypt the bones of the first Habsburgs rest (among them
the progenitor of the Habsburgs, Anna Gertrude von Hohenberg, the wife of Rudolf I).
Special exhibition 2021: To hell with heaven?
The history of epidemics between fear and hope
The history of mankind knows numerous times of plagues and diseases that swept entire regions empty. But she is also familiar with the constant struggle for healing and the findings of natural history and medicine. Wars, famines and natural disasters are considered a breeding ground for insidious diseases that ravaged the entire planet as pandemics and left hardly any country spared. Great misery shaped generations and led to oppressive fear among the people.
Paracelsus, who was a pupil at the nearby cathedral school of St. Andrä, gained breakthrough insights in the fight against the plague and is considered one of the great pioneers of medical research in Europe. This was later followed by important physicians such as Robert Koch, Alexander Flemming and Emil von Behring. They all devoted themselves with dedication to the fight against the great epidemics. The fear of epidemics led to huge pilgrim movements, especially in the Middle Ages, some of which are still alive today. Where medicine reached its limits, the cry for God was raised. Saints were said to have healing powers, and important places of grace attracted millions of pilgrims. The stagnant blood of Januarius, it was believed, heralded disaster for the city of Naples and Saint Corona was invoked as a helper in pandemics. Currently, the earth is plagued by Covid19. History shows, however, that after the epidemics subsided, life was held up again and everyone came to the realization: Life is a celebration!
An exciting foray through the history of epidemics shows that, despite all the severity associated with them, they are part of life and a constant companion of man, but that humanity never let them get it down, but always awakened to new joie de vivre.
1 May to 26 October 2021
