monasteries - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1985 - 5 Shilling

On a rocky hill in southern Lavanttal in Carinthia, the castle Lavant rose in the early Middle Ages. Count Siegfried von Sponheim built there around 1060 a small St. Paul's Church. It stood approximately at the point where the apse of today's collegiate church with the small crypt is located. The son of Siegfried, Count Engelbert I, made the plan to convert the entire paternal castle into a monastery. At the beginning of May 1091, he handed over Lavant Castle and a few goods in the area to monks whom the reformist Wilhelm von Hirsau had sent to him at his request. As early as 1093, St. Paul's Church was inaugurated by Archbishop Thiemo of Salzburg. At the foot of the monastery hill, a settlement soon formed. It is already referred to as a market in a papal document from 1184. That's why St. Paul celebrated his 800th anniversary in 1984 as a market town. With the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, St. Paul received his most important abbot, Hieronymus Marchstaller (1616-38), who came from Swabia. In 1620 he replaced the irregular, medieval monastery complex with a new building, which placed the church in the center and at all four sides should be surrounded by winged buildings. However, the fourth wing on the south side was not completed. This is how the monastic picture was created, which today presents itself to the visitor of St. Paul and can also be found on the brand motif. An extensive collection of works of art from many centuries reinforces the cultural significance of St. Paul.