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Melk, Austria

Today has been a beautiful day…a little bit warmer. We started our day in Melk and then sailed down the Wachau Valley to Krems.

The morning started with a tour of the Melk Abbey. This abbey is a Benedictine abbey that was started when the ruling Babenberg family gave the land and existing castle to the Benedictines in 1089. The family had moved on to another area of Austria. The site contained graves of family members and they wanted the site cared for and preserved. The abbey has been continuously active since then, currently with 30 monks. It also has a secondary school with 900 students. It is known for its Baroque architecture (most current structures were built between 1702 and 1736, although there are 2 towers from the original castle) and massive libraries.

In the early afternoon we sailed through the Wachau Valley on our way to Krems. It is a beautiful valley lined with many villages, castles, and churches. In addition, this is a big wine-growing region.

We climbed up to the ruins of Dürnstein Castle. We really climbed as it is perched on the top of a hill without any easy access. This castle is where King Richard I (the Lionheart) of England was held captive from December 1192 to March 1193 by Leopold V, Duke of Austria after the Third Crusade. Ric*************heart had apparently personally offended Leopold the Virtuous by casting down his standard from the walls at the Battle of Acre, and the duke suspected that King Richard ordered the murder of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat in Jerusalem. He was held until England paid a ransom for his release. The pope excommunicated Leopold for imprisoning a fellow crusader and Richard was handed off to the custody of the king to Emperor Henry VI, who imprisoned Richard at Trifels Castle. Dürnstein Castle was almost completely destroyed by the troops of the Swedish Empire under Field Marshal Lennart Torstenson in 1645. The town of Dürnstein was established in 1019. It sits directly on the Danube. It was the site of he Battle of Dürnstein on 11 November 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.

Krems an der Donau is the fifth-largest city of Lower Austria. It was established by Otto III in 995. However, a 27,000 year old grave has been found in the city, so it has obviously been inhabited for a long time. We didn’t have any scheduled time in Krems, but did take a quick walk around the old town after returning from Dürnstein. It was around 6 pm so nothing was open. It is, however, apparently the primary producer of Marillenschnaps, an apricot brandy.

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