Seckau Abbey

Seckau was founded in 1140 as an Augustinian house, dissolved by Joseph II, and refounded by Benedictines from Beuron in 1883. The church is a Romanesque basilica of the twelfth century, largely intact in its outline with a Gothic addition and a Renaissance-era mausoleum for Archduke Karl II of Inner Austria attached, which is a piece of late Renaissance sculpture of some quality. The unexpected thing is modern: the Engelkapelle, painted between 1952 and 1960 by Herbert Boeckl, covers the walls with a cycle from the Apocalypse in a hard expressionist manner that sits deliberately against the Romanesque around it and was contentious when it was made. The abbey runs a school and a guest house and the valley around it is quiet upland farming.

History

Augustinian canons founded the house in 1140, moving an existing community from Sankt Marein bei Knittelfeld here in 1142, and on 12 March 1143 Pope Innocent II approved the foundation at the request of Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg; the Romanesque basilica was built from 1143 to 1164 and consecrated on 16 September 1164, and as was the custom the canons formed a double monastery, with a community of women here by 1150. The canons' house was dissolved in 1782, and in 1883 Benedictines from Beuron Archabbey, who had been forced to leave Germany in the Kulturkampf, settled it again (Wikipedia, Seckau Abbey).

The main sights

• A twelfth-century Romanesque basilica - largely intact in plan and elevation.
• Boeckl's Engelkapelle - a 1950s expressionist Apocalypse cycle on the walls.
• The Karl II mausoleum - late Renaissance sculpture attached to the church.
• A refounded community - Benedictines from Beuron since 1883.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

The Engelkapelle has restricted access - check whether it is open. Most of the abbey is a school and enclosure. The valley is remote and public transport is thin.

Nearby

Knittelfeld and the Mur valley are below; the Red Bull Ring is south.

Key facts