Altenburg Abbey

Altenburg was founded in 1144, wrecked repeatedly - by Hussites, by Swedes in the Thirty Years War - and rebuilt in the 1730s by Joseph Munggenast, with Paul Troger frescoing the church dome, the library and the marble hall. The library is the best of it, a long hall with the ceiling given over to an allegory of wisdom. Under the church is the crypt, decorated with a painted dance of death - skeletons in motion along the vaults - which is unusual to find in a Benedictine house and unsettling in the way it was meant to be. Excavations in the 1980s found the medieval abbey preserved beneath the baroque floors, so a whole earlier monastery can be walked through underneath. The gardens were laid out in the 1990s on the terraces.

What you actually see

• Troger's library ceiling - the allegory of wisdom over the long hall.
• A painted dance of death - skeletons along the crypt vaults under the church.
• The buried medieval abbey - earlier buildings found under the baroque floors.
• Terraced gardens - laid out in the 1990s below the abbey.

When to go

April to October; the abbey closes for much of winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Winter opening is very limited. Parts are shown by guided tour only. The crypt is dim and the skeleton painting is faded in places. The Waldviertel location needs a car.

Nearby

Horn is close; Rosenburg castle and the Kamptal are south.