Millstatt Abbey
Until its dissolution in 1773 under Emperor Joseph II, Millstatt Abbey for centuries was the spiritual and cultural centre of Upper Carinthia and with its possessions around Millstätter See, in the Gurk Valley (Brückl) as well as in the former March of Friuli and in the Archbishopric of Salzburg (Pinzgau), one of the largest in the region.
The abbey prospered during its early years, enjoying special papal protection, again confirmed by Pope Alexander III in an 1177 deed; it was however never officially exempt and remained under the overlordship of the Archbishops of Salzburg.
At the same time however, the long decay of the Benedictine monastery began, enhanced through the Great Interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire after the ban of the last Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II and the struggles of the Meinhardiner with the rising Habsburgs, who finally were vested with Carinthia upon the death of Duke Henry VI in 1335.
When his grandson Count Ulrich II of Celje was killed in 1456, all his possessions and titles including the Vogtei of Millstatt finally were seized as reverted fiefs by Emperor Frederick III from the House of Habsburg.
At this time the monastic community comprised only about ten monks; Emperor Frederick found the morals degenerated, the buildings decayed and the abbot inept.
The order was therefore fully engaged with the fortification of the monastery, while they failed to protect the region: Millstatt was heavily devastated by the Turks on their 1478 campaign, followed by the Hungarian troops of Emperor Frederick's long-time rival Matthias Corvinus in 1487.
The Jesuits soon became disliked by the local population for their stern measures to lead the subjects back to true faith and, even more, for their unyielding enforcement of public charges.
The rule of the Jesuits came to a sudden end when the order was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, and the Millstatt convent was dissolved under Emperor Joseph II.
According to a tradition given by the Benedictine monks which was already documented in the late 12th century, the monastery church traces back to the (second) Christianization about 780, when the area was ruled by of one Slavic prince Domitian (Domicijan).
Legend has it, that Domitian's son drowned in a storm on Millstätter See, whereafter his mourning father had himself baptized and ordered the first church to be built at Millstatt where the dead body was found.
Similar to Saint Boniface's felling of Donar's Oak, he threw a thousand graven statues – mille statuæ – from a pagan temple into the lake in holy wrath.
Indeed, present-day Carinthia was part of the early mediæval principality of Carantania, which comprised Slavic tribes settling the Eastern Alps from the late 6th century onwards.
On the other hand, several artifacts found in and around the monastery dating back to the Carolingian period indicate that a church already existed at Millstatt in the late 8th century, after the Slavs living in the region around the former Roman city of Teurnia had been Christianized by Chorbishop Modestus sent by Bishop Vergilius of Salzburg.
