After eating lunch at the Austrian restaurant on Tuesday we got back on the busses and headed to the beautiful Melk Monastery in the Danube River Valley. Melk Monastery is one of the oldest working monasteries in the world.
We then entered the dining room that was used for important guests.
As we were in this room, admiring all the man made beauty, God gave us His own incredible work of art. I attempted to take pictures of the sun but none of them could capture the beauty of God's creation at that moment. The sun seemed to be on fire! A few minutes later, as the sun continued to set, the orb seemed to be red on top and purple on bottom. Though none of the pictures I took adequately express the beauty of that moment, I will include the best ones here so you can get some idea of what we saw:
We then stood on the terrace from which we could see the Danube and the back of the Melk on which are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul to whom the monastery is dedicated. St. Peter is holding the key and St. Paul the sword.
From the terrace we entered the library. We saw the first two, two floor, rooms of a 10 room library. They were incredible! It was better than the library scene in Beauty and the Beast!
After the library we came to the main attraction: the Chapel. I was absolutely dazed when we walked in. Though I took tons of pictures it seemed almost pointless. Pictures could never fully capture the beauty of that building. But, here are some of the best:
In the Chapel were two full skeletons of catacomb saints. Amy named the first one Friedrich.
The first sight we saw in the monastery were portraits of the Monastery's most famous historical visitors: Empress Maria Theresa and her husband whose name I can't remember. They had 16 children, one of whom was Marie Antoinette, the wife of the French King Louis the Sixteenth who ended up being guillotined (beheaded) during the French Revolution.
We then toured several rooms containing ancient artifacts from the monastery. As the tour guide pointed out, all these treasures pointed to God. The riches of the monastery consisted of items such as golden monstrances and bejewelled chalices. Also included were ancient paintings, a treasure chest with an insane lock, and numerous relics of saints.
In another room was a miniature model of the Melk:
We then entered the dining room that was used for important guests. As we were in this room, admiring all the man made beauty, God gave us His own incredible work of art. I attempted to take pictures of the sun but none of them could capture the beauty of God's creation at that moment. The sun seemed to be on fire! A few minutes later, as the sun continued to set, the orb seemed to be red on top and purple on bottom. Though none of the pictures I took adequately express the beauty of that moment, I will include the best ones here so you can get some idea of what we saw:
We then stood on the terrace from which we could see the Danube and the back of the Melk on which are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul to whom the monastery is dedicated. St. Peter is holding the key and St. Paul the sword. From the terrace we entered the library. We saw the first two, two floor, rooms of a 10 room library. They were incredible! It was better than the library scene in Beauty and the Beast!
After the library we came to the main attraction: the Chapel. I was absolutely dazed when we walked in. Though I took tons of pictures it seemed almost pointless. Pictures could never fully capture the beauty of that building. But, here are some of the best:
In the Chapel were two full skeletons of catacomb saints. Amy named the first one Friedrich. My favorite part of all the rooms we visited were the ceilings:
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