In 1089, Leopold II, Margrave of Austria, gave one of his castles to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey. The present Baroque abbey was built between 1702 and 1736 to the designs of Jakob Prandtauer. It stands on a rocky outcrop above the town of Melk in Lower Austria, overlooking the Danube.
The abbey church has frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr and Paul Troger. The library holds many rare medieval manuscripts and a large inventory of Baroque literature. The monastery school serves nearly 900 pupils.
After the 1938 Anschluss, the state confiscated the school and a large part of the abbey. A fire in 1974 damaged the interior and its art, and the Marble Hall was restored in the restoration of 1978 to 1995. The abbey is part of the Wachau Cultural Landscape, a World Heritage Site. Umberto Eco named a character in The Name of the Rose Adso of Melk as a tribute.
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