Rein Abbey, Austria

Rein Abbey (

Cistercian monastery in Rein near Gratwein, Styria, in Austria. Also known as the "Cradle of Styria" ("Wiege der Steiermark"), it is the oldest surviving Cistercian community in the world.^[1]

History

The monastery was founded in 1129 by Margrave

Nazis

and the monks were evicted until they were able to return in 1945.

Rein was the mother house of Wilhering Abbey near Linz in 1146, and later of Stična Abbey and Neukloster Abbey.

On 19 September 1276 the abbey was the scene of the Rein Oath (

Habsburgs as rulers of Austria and the end of the rule of King Ottokar II of Bohemia

.

From 1950 to 1990 the community at Rein also accommodated the exiled Cistercians of Hohenfurt Abbey in the former Czechoslovakia, and during that time was known as Rein-Hohenfurt Abbey, until the Czech monks were eventually able to return to the reopened monastery in the present Czech Republic, now Vyšší Brod Abbey.

The abbey also accommodated overflow classes from a local Gymnasium from the 1950s to the 1970s, and lent part of its outbuildings for the use of the Institut für künstlerische Gestaltung, part of the Technische Universität Graz. As of 2014, the Monastery has lent part of its outbuildings to Bundesgymnasium Rein.

Buildings

The abbey church and conventual buildings are of Romanesque origin. At the beginning of the 17th century an upsurge in numbers required the expansion of the conventual buildings. The alterations, which involved the redevelopment of the old cloisters, were carried out between 1629 and 1632 by the architect Bartholomäus di Bosio, who constructed the Neues Konvent with its courtyard and Renaissance arcading.

Under Abbot Placidus Mailly (1710-1745) it was decided to refurbish the church in

basilica minor by Pope John Paul II

in 1979.

The buildings were damaged by a great flood in 1975.

In the summer of 2006 during restoration work in the Baroque choir chapel archaeological excavations were carried out by a team from the University of Graz, and the foundations of the former Romanesque chapter house were discovered, as well as a number of graves, including that of the founder, Margrave Leopold I of Styria. The former Baroque sacristy was dedicated by the abbot as a Lady chapel on 4 February 2007, since when the abbey's oldest madonna has been placed here.

The

Eberhard of Salzburg

, who died at Rein on 22 June 1164.

Other features of note include the abbots' gallery, containing portraits of all the abbots from 1129 onwards, St. Ulrich's church, the tomb of Margrave Ottakar III of Styria (son of the founder), and the monument of Ernest, Duke of Austria (d. 1424).