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Servite Monastery in Schönbühel Abbeys, Monasteries & Churches

  • Schloss Schönbühel auf dem Felsen
  • Kloster Schönbühel Aussenansicht
  • Kloster Schönbühel vom Wasser aus gesehen

Servite Monastery in Schönbühel
Donau 49,
3642 Aggsbach-Dorf

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Allgemein
43 2752 8795
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Opening Hours
Guidances by appointment possible. Registration: Mrs. Renate Haar: Tel.: +43 2752 8795 or mobil +43 650 4080958

  • Schloss Schönbühel auf dem Felsen
  • Kloster Schönbühel Aussenansicht
  • Kloster Schönbühel vom Wasser aus gesehen

The monastery fits into the landscape well and is picturesquely positioned high above the Danube at the entry to the Wachau.

The former Servite monastery in Schönbühel was founded in the 17th c by a pious aristocratic family who had converted to Catholicism. Their objective was to replicate the event of salvation that had unfolded in Israel, with Golgotha, the Entombment of Christ and the birthplace of Jesus in "subterranean Bethlehem."

However, it was as a pilgrimage church that the monastic church gained fame. Believers pilgrimaged there to seek help from Saint Rosalia, protectress against the plague. Following the Josephine church reforms, pilgrimage activity dropped off sharply. The monastery was finally closed in 1980 for a lack of new novices joining the community.

Of special note are the original depiction of the Flight from Egypt and especially the Saint Peregrine's Chapel with the frescos by Johann Bergl, a well-known Austria baroque painter. To get to the lower level, you take the stairway hewn into the hill to the birth grotto with the depiction of the birth of Christ, modeled on the event in Bethlehem.

There are stairs leading down to the river, up which sailors once climbed to pray in the church.