Admont, Austria 🇦🇹 2022

Date: 24th August 2022

Travelled: 120 kms from Graz to Admont in Austria   

Visited:  Benedictine Abbey    

Stayed: Naturepool Admont, free, N47.57540, E14.46700  

Budget: 91 days @ €108 per day

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Pam’s wasn’t feeling herself last night so she did a Covid test. Thankfully it was negative and she didn’t have to sleep outside under the awning. Other than that it was a quiet evening and a sunny morning today. We make the Hymer ready for the road, filling with diesel and doing another quick stop a the lidl on our way out of Graz.

We leave Graz the same way we arrived on the Plabutsch Tunnel. Driving into the 10 kms long tunnel just south of the city centre and coming out on the A9 northbound.

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To our great disappointment we find ourselves on a toll road, mind you every road is a toll road in Austria. We arrive at a booth with a boom gate and a young lady demands €10 for what we are not sure. In Austria every vehicle has to have a vignette, a small sticker than confirms you have paid a levy to use the roads. Which we have. If your over 3.5 tonnes there is an additional kms rate as well. Thankfully we are not over 3.5 tonne. But here we are copping €10. Pam’s a bit snaky about it, so best shut up and just drive on.

Near Dietmannsdorf we turn off the A9 for an over the mountain short cut to Admont.

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We drive straight into the Admont Abbey carpark and have a coffee. So a little about the Benedictine Abbey here at Admont. It was established in 1074, and still houses a monastery today as well as a school and 3 seperate museums. It nearly burnt completely to the ground in 1865 but its library was saved. The library is the largest monastic library in the world it has 70,000 of the monastery’s 200,000 books on display.

There’s a lot to see so we pay our €13.50 pp entry and get going.

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The first museum follows the religious history of the Styria Region, the second, the history of the monastery in particular its fame for creating manuscripts and books. The third is a bug museum which we pass by. The displays are beautifully presented and there’s an English translation on everything. The photos are in no particular order just what I thought interesting.

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After lunch back at the Hymer we return to the Abbey to view the Stiftsbibliothek or library. Having survived the fire it was completely re-decorated with the addition of huge heavenly frescoes some 30 years after the fire. Walking through the library doors we were stunned by both its size and Baroque styling.

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The last item on our guide books list is the Abbey Church. This was also rebuilt after the fire but apparently in the Gothic style similar to the church it replaced.

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So that’s it the Abbey is done. We have a walk around Admont for 30 minutes taking a few photos before returning to the Hymer. There’s a free overnight park at the swimming pool so thats our day done.

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Michael + Pam