Seckau Abbey in Styria, Austria, is a Benedictine monastery and co-cathedral. Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg requested its founding, and Augustinian canons endowed it in 1140. The community moved to Seckau in 1142, and Pope Innocent II made the founding official on March 12, 1143. The abbey church was built from 1143 to 1164 and consecrated on September 16, 1164.
It is a Romanesque basilica with two towers, within Baroque monastic buildings. A medieval crucifixion group hangs on four massive chains. For centuries it was the burial place of the Inner Austrian line of the Habsburgs.
The earlier establishment was dissolved in 1782, and Benedictines from Beuron Archabbey resettled it in 1883. The Gestapo evicted the monks in 1940, and they returned in 1945.
Comments