Rein Abbey, Austria

[1] The monastery was founded in 1129 by Margrave Leopold the Strong of Styria and settled by monks from Ebrach Abbey in Bavaria under the first abbot, Gerlacus.

The abbey has remained a Cistercian community ever since on the same site, except for the temporary exile of a few years during World War II when the premises were confiscated by the Nazis and the monks were evicted until they were able to return in 1945.

The alterations, which involved the redevelopment of the old cloisters, were carried out between 1629 and 1632 by the architect Bartholomäus di Bosio, who constructed the Neues Konvent with its courtyard and Renaissance arcading.

The frescoes, dating from 1766, were by Josef Adam von Mölk, and the painting on the high altar (of the Adoration of the Shepherds) of 1779, by Martin Johann Schmidt.

In the summer of 2006 during restoration work in the Baroque choir chapel archaeological excavations were carried out by a team from the University of Graz, and the foundations of the former Romanesque chapter house were discovered, as well as a number of graves, including that of the founder, Margrave Leopold I of Styria.