Ossiach Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Ossiach

Ossiach

Ossiach is a municipality in the Feldkirchen district in Carinthia, Austria. It is located at the southern shore of Lake Ossiach, on the slope of the small Ossiacher Tauern range within the Nock Mountains at the road between Villach and Feldkirchen...

 near Feldkirchen in Kärnten

Feldkirchen in Kärnten

Feldkirchen in Kärnten is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia and the capital of the district of the same name. It consists of the Katastralgemeinden Fasching, Feldkirchen, Glanhofen, Gradisch, Hoefling, Klein Sankt Veit, Pernegg, Rabensdorf, Sankt Ulrich, Sittich, Tschwarzen and...

 in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

.

History

The monastery was established as the first in the medieval Duchy of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

 in about 1024 by a certain Count Ozi, affiliated with the Styrian Otakar

Otakars

The Otakars were a mediæval dynasty ruling the March of Styria from 1056 to 1192.The dynasty began with Otakar I, probably a son-in-law of Aribo , margrave of Pannonia. Otakar was Count of Steyr in the Traungau, in what is today Upper Austria. Together with Margrave Luitpold, he may have been...

 dynasty and father of Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia. The first monks were probably from Niederaltaich Abbey

Niederaltaich Abbey

Niederaltaich Abbey or Niederaltaich Monastery is a house of the Benedictine Order founded in 731 , situated in the village of Niederalteich on the Danube in Bavaria....

 in Bavaria

History of Bavaria

The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant Bundesland of the modern Federal Republic of...

. From the Otakars the Vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

ei of Ossiach passed to the Austrian House of Babenberg and finally fell to the Habsburgs.

According to legend, King Bolesław II the Bold of Poland, after he was banished in 1079 for the murder of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

Stanislaus of Szczepanów

Stanislaus of Szczepanów, or Stanisław Szczepanowski, was a Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by the Polish king Bolesław II the Bold...

 and had fled to Hungary, then wandered through Europe and found peace at last when he arrived at Ossiach. There the king is said to have lived in the monastery as a mute penitent for eight years humbly doing the meanest and lowliest jobs, until on his death bed he told his father confessor who he was and what he had been doing penance for. The Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 inscription on his alleged tomb at the northern side of the church building says, "Boleslav, King of Poland, Murderer of Saint Stanislav, Bishop of Cracow".

The Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 church itself was first mentioned in 1215, built on the groundplan of a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

, with the tower above the crossing

Crossing (architecture)

A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...

. Restored in a Late Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style after a fire in 1484, the abbey, a member of the Benedictine Salzburg Congregation from 1641, was extensively altered in the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period, including stucco decoration of the Wessobrunner School

Wessobrunner School

The Wessobrunner School is the name for a group of Baroque stucco-workers that, beginning at the end of the 17th century, developed in the Benedictine Wessobrunn Abbey in Bavaria, Germany....

.

Ossiach Abbey was dissolved in 1783, after which the buildings were used as a barracks. In 1816 the premises were largely demolished. Between 1872 and 1915 the few remaining buildings were again used as a barracks and as stabling. Since 1995 the premises have been owned by the administration of Carinthia. The church since the dissolution has served the local parish. Two stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows were donated by Karl May

Karl May

Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...

in 1905, though according to recent research the popular writer had probably never visited Ossiach.

The monastery site is one of the venues of the annual music festival "Carinthian Summer".