Historical development of the outer premises

The appearance of the extensive building complex of Admont Monastery is dominated by the broad green areas both outside and inside. Pictures and descriptions document the efforts to provide a harmonious and generous layout of the gardens and the inner courtyards since the 17th century, together with the various interruptions to these developments.

Building activities in the late Baroque period closed off the monastery premises, which had previously been open at many points, to the East and South, thus creating, together with the early Baroque “Old Buildings”, a total of six inner courtyards. The fire of 1865 mainly destroyed the older part of the buildings so that when the rubble and ruins had been removed a considerably larger inner courtyard remained, which meant the gardens had to be laid out afresh. Their layout has since been altered many times in the course of time. Formerly densely planted with trees, in 1890 the area was divided by palings, thus forming an inner and an outer section.

After the Second World War the inner area was divided into an arboretum in the South (with its magnificent copper beeches) and a rosarium in the North with the Neptune Fountain from 1665, which had been brought here after the fire from the former Prelates’ Court. The area outside the palings South of the church was newly designed as the Hemma Park with a statue by Alfred Schlosser. The replanning of these three areas in 2000 also retained these concepts.

Surrounded by a high wall, the gardens on the outer side of the Monastery building, containg the two chapels (dedicated to St. Benedict and St. Blaise) from the time around 1735, were still being used as an orchard and vegetable and ornamental gardens until well into the 20th century. In the 60s and 70s veritable fields of dahlias and fuchsia spread out to the East and South when Master Gardener Nutzinger carried on his famous flower breeding.

The Monastery Secondary School was erected on the North side after 1973 and extended several times, later receiving the gardens on the East side as sports grounds. In 1980 the Baroque Garden Pavilion was renovated and the surrounding part of the gardens restored to the historical layout shown in an illustration from 1674. The new large parking area on the South side was laid out in 1996 between the greenhouses of the market garden and the pond, which has been there for more than 300 years, combining functionality and harmonizing well with the garden landscape.