History



The legend has it that the Babenberger Leopold III. instructed the building of the convent church on this particular spot, where the lost veil of his wife Agnes was found. This is imagination. True is, that they build their housing property 1106 in Klosterneuburg and this area was already populated in the early Stone Age and housed a roman castle. Through that, it had a flourishing development and in 1114 the foundations for the building of the convent were layed.

Leopold III. passes over the convent to the Augustiner Chorherren. They can extend the properties and enjoyed a good reputation by the king and the pope.

When Leopold III. was canonized in 1485, Klosterneuburg developed itself to a popular place of pilgrimage.

In the 18th. century the significance of the convent reached one of its climaxes. The Austrian emperors took the Spanish Escorial as an example and developed it to a massive housing property. The so called "Kaiserbau" should unify the sophisticated and religious power but stayed unfinished.

In th 20th. century Pius Parsch (1884-1954) became famous as the founder of the popular liturgy and became well-known in the whole world as the editor of the eminent "Klosterneuburger Meßtexte". He ist therefore the most famous Chorherr of the convent.

The convent survived the two world wars despite of the expropriation and the temporary closing. It remained undamaged. After 1945 the working quarters had to be restored. The wine-growing estate of the convent was modernized and extended so that the Chorherren Klosterneuburg rank as one of the biggest of our time.



Directions tml>