KLOSTERNEUBURG, MONASTERY OF

A monastery of Augustinian canons on the Danube, Archdiocese of Vienna, Austria. Established c. 1100 with secular canons, it was transferred to Augustinians in 1133. Margrave St. leopold iii (c. 1075–1136) and Abp. Conrad II of Salzburg endowed the monastery richly and in 1114 began the building of its monumental church. The monastery, always one of the most important spiritual and artistic centers in Austria, defended papal interests in the Middle Ages, and in 1359 its provost received the right to wear pontificals. As a rich monastery it had political prominence, and as the burial place of Leopold it was the religious center of the country. Theological disciplines were cultivated from the beginning, and in the 15th century cartography and astronomy were studied. After declining during the Reformation, it was brought back to Catholicism under the strong direction of the emperors and in a 16th-century renaissance it reestablished the Bohemian monasteries of Třebon and Borovany. In 1730 Charles VI began a gigantic, still unfinished monastery-residence modeled after the escorial. During World War II under the Nazis, the monastery was suppressed.

The provosts of the monastery include otto (1126–32), later bishop of Freising; Bl. hartmann (1133–40), later bishop of Brixen; and Cardinal Friedrich piffl (1907–13), later archbishop of Vienna. Pius parsch (1884–1954), institutor of the popular liturgical movement, and Romanus Scholz (1912–44), an Austrian resistance hero, were canons of Klosterneuburg. The interior of the Romanesque church (1114–36) with Gothic towers was rebuilt in 17th-century baroque. St. Leopold's chapel, originally the chapterhouse, includes the famous enamel altar by Nicholas of Verdun (1181), a great bronze chandelier (1120–30), and beautiful glass paintings of the 14th and 15th centuries. A Gothic cloister (13th–14th century) and a baroque emperor's "palace" with a marble hall (1730–40) are noteworthy. The library of 160,000 volumes and 1,256 MSS, the archives, the famous treasure containing the Austrian archducal crown (1616), and a gallery with many Gothic paintings are of great value. The 95 members of 1914 were reduced to 65 in 1964. The monastery serves 26 parishes with 135,000 souls. It has a theological academy founded in 1768, a school for boys and a choir school, and editorial and publishing facilities. It engages in farming, forestry, and the cultivation of vineyards. Pilgrims come to the shrine of St. Leopold for his feast (November 15). The monastery has published the bimonthly Bibel und Liturgie since 1926.

Bibliography: Jahrbuch des Stiftes Klosterneuburg, 9 v. (1908–20; NS 1961– ). Klosterneuburger Kunstschätze (1961– ). b. Černik, Das Augustiner-Chorherrenstift Klosterneuburg (Vienna 1958). f. rÖhrig, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 6:349–350. h. fillitz, ed., Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und Archäologie des Frühmittelalters (Graz 1962).

[f. h. rÖhrig]