A Town for All Seasons

Join me on a trip across the 20th century, in and around Lilienfeld Abbey

Today, we’ll travel across the 20th century—come, and check out Lilienfeld with me!

In case you missed the first part, here you go:

Lilienfeld, a Small Town with a Big Abbey

Postcards from the First Half of the 20th Century

We’ll kick off this posting with the following images—vintage postcards from before or during the Great War. First, a view of the Cistercian Abbey:

Below, in case you’re wondering what a Baroque church in Austria looks like from the inside, well, now you know—courtesy of this postcard mailed in 1919.

Below, another perspective on a postcard mailed in 1942; in case you’re wondering where, exactly, the Abbey might be—shown is the small town on the other side of the river Traisen (which means, the below postcard was taken from the bell tower or the like):

Finally from the first half of the 20th century, the Klosteralm (lit. the monastery’s summer meadow), located a few kilometres south of the Abbey and today part of the skiing area by the name Muckenkogel.

Behold the happy cows, by the way.

Inside Lilienfeld Abbey

Two updated and never-mailed postcards showing, on the left-hand side, the Abbey’s Chapter Hall (Kapitelsaal) and, on the right-hand side, the basements (Cellarium maius), both dating to the 13th century (in case you wondered what these parts of such a monastery might look like).

Like so many monasteries in “Claustria” (Klösterreich), Lilienfeld has an awesome library, as shown in the above postcard. The interior—like most of the Baroque parts—dates from around the turn of the 18th century.

As an aside, these libraries are veritable treasure troves of old books, and many a monastery’s archives harbour top-notch source material (that is, if you can read early modern manuscript and are planning to do a book-length study). You might wish to check out the below posting about Zwettl Abbey, which I did some time ago:

From the Vaults of Zwettl Abbey's Archives

(In case you’re wondering: yes, I’m done with the drafting of my book manuscript and I’m going through the chapters once more and performing revisions, clarifications, etc. The manuscript is due with the publisher in mid-October.)

An Town for All Seasons

Finally, a few postcards showing Lilienfeld through most of a year:

A spring total with the Muckenkogel—and the Klosteralm—visible in the centre of the image (the highest peak “behind” the abbey). The postcard was mailed in 1979.

Above, summer in Lilienfeld, with an autumn image below (both are, sadly, undated and were never mailed):

I hope you enjoyed this trip, but we need to move on now.