Melk Abbey

The large library room of Melk Abbey, high above the Danube in Lower Austria, with its gilded shelves rising to a painted ceiling. The abbey was founded in the 11th century, and its library holds 1,800 manuscripts and 750 incunabula among its books. Visitors see two historic rooms, the large and the small library room. Check before you go: a long restoration is underway, and while the library stays open with baroque volumes on display, some areas cannot be fully seen until the work in the rooms ends in 2027.