Mauerbach Charterhouse

The monastery was plundered and set on fire, and some of the monks were massacred, by Ottoman troops during the 1529 Siege of Vienna, and suffered further serious structural damage by the 1590 Neulengbach earthquake.

Under Abbot Georg Fasel (1616–1631) an intensive rebuilding programme began, finishing in 1660, during which the great majority of the present-day buildings were constructed.

In 1683 renewed Turkish assaults during the Battle of Vienna caused more destruction, launching a further programme of repairs and refurbishments which finished only in 1750.

In 1782 the monastery was dissolved as "non-productive" by Emperor Joseph II during his rationalist reforms and from 1786 the premises were used for the care of the old and incurably ill of the city of Vienna.

The buildings were also used for decades as a store for works of art that had been looted by the Nazis and classified by the Austrian State as "ownerless" ("herrenloses Kunstgut").