The story of this place
Perched on a rocky bluff over the Danube at the edge of the Wachau valley, Melk Abbey was founded in 1089 when Margrave Leopold II gave a castle to Benedictine monks. Rebuilt in dazzling Baroque between 1702 and 1736, its golden church and twin-towered facade dominate the river. Its library, holding some 100,000 volumes and priceless medieval manuscripts, inspired Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, whose narrator is named Adso of Melk. The monks have run a school here continuously since the 12th century, and the abbey remains a working Benedictine community nearly 1,000 years on.