Klosterneuburg Monastery

Klosterneuburg Abbey sits high above the Danube northwest of Vienna and is Austria's oldest continuously inhabited monastery. Margrave Leopold III and his wife Agnes of Waiblingen founded it in 1114, handed it to the Augustinian Canons in 1133 and endowed the celebrated Verdun Altar, an enamel masterpiece by Nicholas of Verdun dated 1181. Emperor Charles VI commissioned a gigantic Baroque residence-abbey from 1730 modelled on the Escorial, but only a quarter was finished by his death. Visitors can tour the Imperial Hall, the treasury with the Archducal Hat of Austria, and the vast vaulted wine cellar. Each November the Leopoldifest crowns the calendar, with traditional barrel-sliding.