Durnstein and Melk

Tuesday May 27

Dürnstein

The town gained its name from the medieval castle, Burgruine Dürnstein, which overlooked it. The castle was called "Duerrstein" or "Dürrstein", from the German duerr/dürr meaning "dry" and Stein, "stone". The castle was dry because it was situated on a rocky hill, high above the damp conditions of the Danube at the base of the hill, and it was built of stone.

Durnstein Castle

Dürnstein was first mentioned in 1192, when, in the castle above the town, King Richard I Lionheart of England was held captive by Duke Leopold V of Austria after their dispute during the Third Crusade. Richard had personally offended Leopold by casting down his standard from the walls at the Battle of Acre, and the duke suspected that King Richard ordered the murder of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat in Jerusalem. In consequence Pope Celestine III excommunicated Leopold for capturing a fellow crusader. The duke finally gave the custody of Richard to Emperor Henry VI, who imprisoned Richard at Trifels Castle.  He was finally released after a ransom of 20 tonnes of silver was paid.

Dürnstein Castle was almost completely destroyed by the troops of the Swedish Empire under Field Marshal Lennart Torstenson in 1645.

Dürnstein Abbey (Stift Dürnstein) was established in 1410 by Canons Regular from Třeboň and from 1710 rebuilt in a Baroque style; its steeple is quite unique being painted blue and white.  The monastery was dissolved by order of Emperor Joseph II in 1788 and came under the control of the Herzogenburg Priory.

Originally Durnstein was surrounded by a town wall and parts of the wall still exist.  Being built at the base of a hill there isn’t any room for additional houses in the town and most of the buildings date back to the 1600 to 1700s and the streets are paved with cobblestones.

The hills above the town are terraced and planted with grape vines and these provide the main income for the residents.  The town is in the Wachau Valley which is renowned for producing the best quality white wines in Austria.

Durnstein Abbey (castle on hill above)

After walking through the town we entered the court yard of the old abbey and entered a room which was previously a dining room for the monks where we had a tasting of the local white wines accompanied by a crusty bread roll baked in the town.  The roll is so popular that the bakery produces 30,000 each night for distribution throughout Austria.

After lunch we sailed along the river through the Wachau Valley with the terraced hills planted with vines, there are around 1400 hectares of terraces along the valley and most farmers owning two to five hectares of vines.  Every few kilometres we passed another small town nestled at the foot of the terraced hills.

Melk is best known as the site of a massive baroque Benedictine monastery named Melk Abbey.

Melk Abbey Courtyard

The town is first mentioned as Medilica in 831 in a donation of Louis the German; the name is from a Slavic word for 'border. The area around Melk was given to Margrave Leopold I in the year 976 to serve as a buffer between the Magyars (called "Turks" in that time's sources) to east and Bavaria to the west. In 996 mention was first made of an area known as Ostarichi, which is the origin of the word Oesterreich (German for Austria). The bluff which holds the current monastery held a Babenberger castle until the site was given to Benedictine monks from nearby Lambach by Margrave Leopold II in 1089. Melk received market rights in 1227 and became a municipality in 1898. In a very small area, Melk presents a great deal of architectural variety from many centuries.

The abbey originally had 30% of its space as accommodation for travellers and the royal family used it regularly on their travels to and from Vienna, the first floor was reserved entirely for them.  The corridor outside their rooms runs for a length of 200m, many of the rooms on this floor are used as a museum for the abbey, with displays of its history and many of its treasures, also displayed are several sets of the Abbot’s vestments.

Melk Abbey Church

Nowadays the abbey is used as a school for 900 pupils but only three of the monks are involved with teaching.

From the museum are we walked around to the library which contains 80,000 books, dating back hundreds of years which are still available for research.

After visiting the Abbey church an elaborate Baroque style interior, we strolled back to the ship through the old town and the woods.  After dinner and before sailing we were entertained by two singers performing works from popular operettas and concluding with songs from the Sound of Music.