Page 205 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

UPPER A USTRIA  203

w Wels
Road map E3. * 59,000. £ @
n Stadtplatz 44 (07242) 67 722-0.
∑ wels.at
The history of Wels dates back
to the Romans, as testified by
numerous excavations. Some
of the objects discovered are on
display in the former Minorites’
Abbey, including the famous
Wels Venus, a bronze statuette
from the 1st–2nd century AD,
and the oldest early-Christian
epitaph in Austria, from the first
half of the 4th century.
Today Wels is a centre of
agriculture and industry, and
Flamingoes in the zoo at Schmiding the venue of Agraria, a biennial
agricultural fair of international
of flamingoes are further family seat into a monastery. importance. Many historic fea-
highlights of the zoo. Children Their son, Bishop Adalbero of tures have also been preserved.
will love the 5-m- (16-ft-) Würzburg, who was later Stadtplatz, the main square in
high platform which allows canonized, invited Benedictine the old town, is entered through
them to come face to face monks here in 1089. In the same a Baroque gate, the Ledererturm.
with the giraffes. year, the Lambach monks Many houses in Stadtplatz have
As well as land animals, established a second monastery attractive façades, such as the
the zoo features an array of at Melk, which was eventually to Rococo Kremsmünstererhof
marine life, displayed in an surpass the mother abbey in with its arcaded courtyard,
“aqua zoo”. Feeding time with terms of status and beauty (see which for 400 years belonged to
the piranhas is particularly pp146–7). The abbey church was Kremsmünster Abbey. Adjacent
popular with visitors. mostly rebuilt in the 17th cen tury; to it stands a water tower (1577)
rebuilding of the abbey itself and a two-house complex form-
was completed 50 years later. ing the late-Baroque town hall.
q Lambach The Baroque interior of the Also on Stadtplatz is the
Road map D3. * 3,400. £ @ church is very beautiful, but Stadt pfarrkirche, the parish
n (07245) 283550. Lambach owes its fame primarily church of St John the Evangelist,
to its Romanesque frescoes, with an original Romanesque
Lambach, on the left bank of probably dating from the portal and magni ficent 14th-
the Traun river, grew rich in the 11th century. Unique in Austria, century stained-glass windows
Middle Ages thanks to the they are considered an in the presbytery. Burg Wels,
flourishing salt trade. Around outstanding example of the imperial palace, first docu-
1040, Count Arnold II von Romanesque art. At their centre mented in 776, is now a lively
Wels-Lambach and his wife is the Madonna with Child, to cultural centre and home of
Regilinda transformed the the left the Adoration of the the regional museum.
Magi, who present gifts to
the Holy Infant. The south
vault depicts Jerusalem and
Herod’s palace. The abbey
treasury also holds the
Romanesque chalice
of Bishop Adalbero, and
precious monstrances and
chasubles. Also on view
are ceiling paintings by
Martino Altomonte and
Martin Johann Schmidt.
The musical archives hold a
copy of Mozart’s Lambacher
Symphonie, which the com-
poser reputedly created
while staying here. Lambach
also has a beautifully pre- The galleried courtyard of
Romanesque frescoes in Lambach Abbey served Rococo theatre. Krems münsterhof in Stadtplatz, Wels

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