Stift Mattsee, Religious monastery and museum in Mattsee, Austria
Stift Mattsee is a monastery complex in Austria featuring a church with a 60-meter tower, museum galleries, and a cultural center housed within historic buildings. The site preserves religious architecture alongside art collections spanning multiple periods.
The monastery was founded around 765 by Duke Tassilo III as a Benedictine abbey and transformed into a collegiate foundation approximately around 1045. This shift marked a significant change in how the community was organized and governed.
The community is led by a provost with 11 canons and up to four honorary canons, who meet at least twice a year; the rest of the year the canons serve as pastors in parishes under the Archbishop of Salzburg or the Bishop of Linz. The provosts include Vinzenz Baldemair (1996–2012) and, since 2013, Franz Lusak. In the historic wine cellar in Mattsee the foundation sells wines from its own vineyard in the Wachau.
The museum welcomes visitors and displays artworks along with historical objects, while the cultural center hosts regular concerts and events. The monastery also operates its own vineyard in the Wachau region where visitors can taste and purchase wines.
The abbey archive holds the oldest surviving charter on Salzburg soil: a deed of donation issued by Louis the German in 860. It is a charter, not a manuscript. The museum in the former provost's residence also keeps three paintings by Johann Michael Rottmayr, an astronomical clock and a late Gothic Madonna.
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