[1][a] Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, took it under his protection; monastic buildings replaced the old castle, donations enriched them, and many exemptions and privileges were granted by ecclesiastical and secular authorities, especially by Pope Innocent III, Pope Honorius III, and Emperor Frederick II.

The abbey almost came to an end during the Protestant Reformation, when Abbot Erasmus Mayer absconded with its funds to Nuremberg, where he married.

By 1585, there were no monks left at the abbey, which was only saved by the efforts of Abbot Alexander a Lacu, who was installed by the emperor during the Counter-Reformation.

He inaugurated reform in regular observance and temporal administration and regained possession of much of the monastery's former property; he also reconstructed the monastic buildings.

[b] Abbot Johann Baptist Hinterhölzl (1734–1750) made emergency repairs to the church using the remnants of the walls.

The novice masters began to teach young monks the Rule of St. Benedict and the value of ancient monastic observances.

[3] In 1940, Wilhering Abbey was expropriated by the Nazis, and the monks were expelled; some were arrested and sent to concentration camps, while others were forced into military service.

[c] Kürnberg Forest (Kürnberger Wald), owned by the abbey and situated between Wilhering and Linz, forms a green belt that is highly beneficial to the people of the region.

Under Abbot Theobald Grasböck in 1895, the abbey secondary school (Gymnasium) was founded with facilities for boarding.

It was the abbey inn until 1970, and now houses a museum of modern art exhibiting works of the painter Fritz Fröhlich.

To the west lies the abbey park, open to the public, with its stock of exotic trees and the Baroque pavilion.

According to the German art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, "the abbey church of Wilhering is the most brilliant achievement of the Rococo style in the German-speaking world.

[9] Moreover, all the individual elements are in harmony and seem to be connected in some way: the altars, the pulpit, the two organs, the choir stalls, the putti and the frescoes with numerous saints, with clouds and blue sky.

[10] The church was completely rebuilt in the Rococo style by Johann Haslinger of Linz, a little-known master mason from Linz, who may have been working from designs by Joseph Matthias[11] Abbot Hinterhölzl engaged various freelance artists to carry out the programme for the decoration, which is recorded in a banderol in the ceiling fresco of the chancel: "Assumpta est Maria in caelum, gaudent angeli".

The two anterior altar-pieces, placed nearest to the high altar, refer to Mary's work in the Benedictine (left) and Cistercian (right) Orders.

According to the abbot's wish, the frescoes had to be similar to those of the abbey at Spital am Pyhrn, showing Mary being assumed into the glory of Heaven.

The idea is that grace will be heaped upon those who venerate Mary, and that all continents are united with her by the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

The fresco in the flat cupola of the crossing is a combined work by the Italian painter of architectural perspective, Francesco Messenta, and Altomonte.

[9] The picture is an allegory of Mary's triumph over sin and the sinner's due punishment, symbolized by mankind chained to the globe.

The frescoes in the presbytery and below the organ-loft show angels playing musical instruments in honour of the Queen of Heaven.

However, he was forced to interrupt his work by the War of the Austrian Succession, and his commission was later discontinued, as his stuccoing was too orderly with little exuberance.

They also furnished the continuous main cornice with red stuccoed marble and all the pilasters with the same material in an elegant grey.

Moreover, Ueblherr himself created the sixteen life-sized statues of saints for the altars, the figures of the Holy Trinity above the high altar, the statue of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous abbot of the Cistercians, for the sounding-board of the pulpit, and the royal harpist David above the choir organ.

They sent for the gilder Johann Georg Frueholz of Munich, who was known to them, to provide the final gloss to the interior of the church by gilding it abundantly.

In the meantime two lay-brothers of Wilhering, Eugen Dymge and Johann Baptist Zell, carved the choir stalls and the pews.