Page 206 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

204  A USTRIA REGION B Y REGION

e Kremsmünster are its earliest exhibits; these 1443, was remodelled in the
include the gilded-copper Neo-Gothic style, but it has
Road map E3. £ @ Tel (07583)
5275-0. Open for guided tours chalice and candel abras of preserved some elements of
booked in advance only. & Duke Tassilo, the legendary its original 15th-century decor,
∑ stift-kremsmuenster.at founder of the abbey, and the the work of Hans Puchsbaum
Codex millenarius (c.800), an (builder of the Stephansdom in
Perched high above the Krems illuminated manuscript. Vienna), as well as some lovely
river, on an impressive terrace wrought-iron grilles. The south
formed during the Ice Age, is wall has magnificent 15th-
the 8th-cen tury Benedictine r Steyr cen tury stained-glass windows;
abbey of Kremsmünster, its Road map E3. * 38,000. £ @ the sculptures in the north
present appearance dating n Stadtplatz 27, (07252) 53 229. portal and the former cemetery
mostly from the 17th century. chapel of St Margaret (1430),
The abbey was completed by Steyr, one of Austria’s largest also by Hans Puchsbaum, date
Jakob Prandtauer, to designs industrial centres, is also a from the same period.
by Carlo Carlone. Two of its very attractive town which has The Schloss (castle), first
most remarkable features are managed to preserve its old mentioned in 10th-century
the 17th-century fish town almost intact. annals, stands in the oldest
ponds, surrounded by The townscape is part of the town. Today it has
columns, corridors and punctuated in the a Baroque façade and a mostly
sculp tural fountains, north by the turrets Rococo interior. The house at
and the eight-storey of the castle and in No. 26 Grünmarkt, formerly a
Sternwarte, or the south by the towers granary, is now a museum.
“Mathematical Tower”. of the Stadtpfarrkirche,
Completed in 1756, the parish church at Environs: In Gleink, a northern
the 50-m- (165-ft-) high Brucknerplatz. The centre suburb of Steyr, there is a
observa tion tower was of town is the elongated Benedictine abbey. Some 3 km
arguably the highest Stadtplatz (town (2 miles) west of the town centre,
secular building of its The Tassilo Chalice in square) with most of in the suburb of Christkindl, is
era. Today it holds Kremsmünster the historic sights. The the church of the same name
collections of Bummerlhaus (1497), (meaning “Infant Christ”), a
palaeontology, physics, at No. 32, is a well-preserved joint work of Giovanni Battista
anthropology, astronomy and Gothic house with a high Carlone and Jakob Prandtauer.
zoology. The Stiftskirche pitched roof and three arcaded In 1695, a sick man placed a wax
(abbey church) has rich stucco courtyards, that is now a bank. figure of the Infant Jesus in the
decorations and angel statues. The Rococo Rathaus (town hall), hollow of a tree and prayed
The abbey museum contains with its slender steeple, was there every day for a cure. His
works by Austrian and Dutch designed by Johann Gotthard prayers were answered and
masters from the Baroque and Hayberger. The inner courtyards soon the crowds of pilgrims
Renaissance periods, wood of houses around the square drawn to the site of the miracle
carvings and gold objects. are also worth seeing. The were so large that, in 1702, the
The pride of Kremsmünster Stadtpfarrkirche, built in abbot from nearby Garsten

Panorama of Steyr, as seen from the river
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp296–7 and pp320–21

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