Göttweig Abbey is a Benedictine monastery near Krems in Lower Austria, in the Wachau, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape. Blessed Altmann, Bishop of Passau, founded it as a canons regular monastery in 1083. In 1094 the Rule of St. Benedict was introduced, and under Abbot Hartmann it became a seat of learning.
A fire in 1580 almost entirely destroyed the monastery, and a second fire in 1718 destroyed it again. Abbot Gottfried Bessel rebuilt it on a grander scale, with Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt as architect. The Baroque design was inspired by the Escorial.
Its Imperial Staircase is the largest Baroque staircase in Austria. Paul Troger painted its fresco in 1739, showing Charles VI as Apollo. The library holds about 150,000 books and manuscripts, and about 30 monks live at the abbey today.
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