Göss Abbey, Benedictine monastery in Leoben, Austria

Göss Abbey is a former Benedictine nunnery in Göss, now part of Leoben. Its former abbey church, dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Andrew, is a large late Gothic building with an early Romanesque crypt beneath the choir and a massive roof truss. The church and the Romanesque Chapel of Saint Michael, decorated with early Gothic frescoes in the zigzag style, can still be visited; the Brunnhöfl courtyard is largely preserved.

The monastery was founded in 1004 by Adula of Leoben and her son, receiving Imperial Abbey status from Henry IV in 1020. This early imperial recognition established it as one of the region's major religious institutions.

The nunnery took only daughters of the Styrian nobility, who were educated and housed there for centuries. The first abbess was Kunigunde, sister of Archbishop Aribo of Mainz. The Gösser Ornat, a Romanesque silk embroidery made around 1260, was donated by Abbess Kunigunde II and worked by her fellow nuns; it is now kept at the MAK in Vienna.

The former abbey buildings now house the Göß brewery, while the church remains open as a parish place of worship. Visitors can enter the religious space and also view the working brewery grounds nearby.

The Schauraum displays a reusable Josephine coffin of 1784 whose hinged bottom dropped the linen-wrapped body into a common grave, saving local authorities the cost of coffins in pauper funerals. The measure proved so unpopular that it was withdrawn after a few months.