August 6th

Klosterneuburg 

Today was our trip to the monastery of Klosterneuburg, which was founded by Leopold in 1114 for secular cannons. In 1133, Leopold expelled these cannons and the Augustinian cannons that are there to this day were brought in. It was amazing to learn how Klosterneuburg is the oldest and largest wine producing monastery in all of Austria.  The highlight of the trip to Klosterneuburg was the Verdun Altar piece. It was crafted by Nicholas of Verdun and was completed in 1181, 11 years after he started. It was enameled metal, with gold-fired molding. It was originally thought to be part of a pulpit and is known as a triptych with three panels that illustrate scenes from the bible.  Another interesting fact about Klosterneuburg was the two spires that form the towers of the main church. They had two different colored stones on each tower. What happened was the tower that was purely made of white stone was because they had taken stones from one specific quarry. They underestimated how many stones they would need and ran out, so the tower on the left that has the yellowed out stones because of that miscalculation. Going into the Baroque church was amazing as well. It was awesome because Dom Ambrose unlocked the rod iron gate and we got to walk up to the main altar where as the people that were touring the monastery on their own were not so lucky. It was really awesome though that we were able to get up close to the main altar while others who were there to see the monastery were forced to stay behind the gate while we got a private tour through the grandiose church. It was cool to hear from Dom Ambrose on his desire to come and join the community in Klosterneuburg. He told us that in the states, priests have to live on their own in solitude, where as in Austria he could live in a community, similar to that of a family. Later on we went to a heuringen and had a great dinner as a class, and the cannons that had shown us around the monastery later joined us.  It was fun to try the blood sausage and to eat some traditional Austrian food. Really enjoyed the potato salad, I really like it better than potato salad in the states.