Melk Abbey - Baroque masterpiece with wine heritage

One of Europe's most magnificent baroque monasteries, perched above the Danube where monks have made wine since 1089. The abbey library is world-famous, the views are spectacular, and the monastery still produces wine from surrounding vineyards.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Find the View That Stops River Cruise Passengers Cold Adventure · Free

   The approach to Melk Abbey is half the experience. Most visitors ride straight to the entrance and miss the reveal.

   This is the shot. Cross to the middle of St. Leopold Bridge (Leopoldsbrücke) at the end of Kremser Straße and face west. The entire abbey — all 325 meters of ochre-yellow Baroque — sits atop a 50-meter rocky outcrop above the Danube. In 1089, Margrave Leopold II looked at his military stronghold and gave it to the monks instead. He thought God deserved a better address than the emperor. Walk from Melk train station downhill toward the river (10 min), cross the bridge first, stop in the middle, turn west, spend five minutes. Then proceed uphill to the abbey.

   Backup: The town of Emmersdorf an der Donau (directly across the river) gives an equally spectacular view from its riverbank.

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2. 2 Stand in the Library That Invented a Murder Mystery History · Price: moderate

   Umberto Eco stood in this exact room and built the crime of The Name of the Rose around it. The narrator of that novel is named Adso of Melk.

   Umberto Eco visited this library while writing The Name of the Rose. He named his narrator 'Adso' directly after this monastery, and the forbidden, labyrinthine library in his novel is modeled on what you're standing in. The Abbey Library holds 100,000 volumes including 1,800 manuscripts, one of which is the handwritten Rule of Saint Benedict the monks carried from Lambach in 1089 — around 1,000 years old. Look up: Paul Troger's 1731 ceiling fresco shows Faith surrounded by the four cardinal virtues. Take the English guided tour at 10:55am or 2:55pm (50 minutes), then walk immediately to the Altane — the open terrace between the Marble Hall and library for the single best view of the Danube valley.

   Backup: Self-guided visit (€16) lets you linger as long as you want. Arrive at opening (9am) to beat the river cruise crowds.

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3. 3 Taste the Wine Grown by Monks for 935 Years Wine · Price: low

   Melk Abbey has farmed Wachau vineyards since the Middle Ages. Since 1979, Weingut Jamek has worked the slopes. Their wine is what is in the abbey bottles.

   The wine labeled 'Stift Melk' is made by Weingut Jamek from grapes grown on the steep stone terraces that Bavarian Benedictine monks carved by hand around 800 AD — before Melk had a church, before Vienna had a name worth mentioning. Look for Smaragd, named after the emerald-green lizard that suns itself on the dry-stone walls of these same terraces. At the Abbey Shop in the modern bastion, ask for the Stift Melk Smaragd Riesling or Grüner Veltliner (€12–25). When you hold that bottle, that lizard is probably out there right now, on a 9th-century monk-built stone wall. Also pick up the abbey's herbal liqueur distilled from herbs grown in the Paradise Garden following Abbot Walafrid Strabo's 9th-century recipe.

   Backup: The Stiftsrestaurant serves Wachau wines by the glass alongside Austrian food made from 90% locally sourced ingredients.

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4. 4 Pray With the 22 Monks at Noon Adventure · Free · Optional

   This is a living monastery. Twenty-two Benedictine monks live here. At noon every day, they pray. You can join them.

   Melk Abbey is not a museum. It is a monastery with 22 monks living here right now, following a Rule written 1,500 years ago: ORA et LABORA et LEGE — pray, work, and read. Plan to be in the church by 11:45am for the noon prayer (Sext) open to anyone. The church is one of the supreme achievements of Austrian Baroque: Johann Michael Rottmayr's 1722 ceiling fresco shows St. Benedict's Via Triumphalis into heaven. When the monks file in, stay seated and be quiet — this is the same ritual performed daily here since March 21, 1089. The church has been standing 700 years longer than the United States.

   Backup: Even outside prayer times, spend 15 minutes with the Rottmayr dome fresco — he painted it scaffolded 30 meters above the floor, by candlelight, in his 60s.

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5. 5 Descend to Rathausplatz and Drink Wachau Below Wine · Price: low · Optional

   After the abbey, the cobbled stairway drops you into Melk's old town square. The abbey looms above. The wine is grown on those slopes.

   Walk down the cobbled stairway from the abbey exit to Rathausplatz — Melk's pedestrian square with cafe chairs on cobblestones embedded with blue glass that catches the light. The abbey towers above the rooftops while you order a glass of Federspiel Grüner Veltliner — named for the lure used in falconry, 11.5–12.5% ABV, the everyday drinking style. At Rathauskeller in the historic vaults of the old town, tell the server you want something from the Wachau terraces — they will know exactly what you mean. As you sit there, you are surrounded by three names: Steinfeder (feather grass), Federspiel (the falcon), Smaragd (the emerald lizard) — each a creature that lives in these vineyard walls right now.

   Backup: Café Restaurant zum Fürsten serves Wachau wines by the glass alongside Wachauer Marillenknödel — apricot dumplings made with the Wachauer Marille, grown nowhere else on earth.

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Insider tips

• The monastery garden offers a quiet spot after the crowded abbey

• Ask about wines from the monastery's own vineyards

• Combine with a wine tasting in the town below after your visit