Start of the season
Zwettl Monastery Zwettl Abbey 1, ZwettlZwettl Abbey starts the new tourist season on Palm Sunday. From now on, guided tours of the monastery will once again take place daily. On tour three, which leads into the baroque library with its magnificent frescoes by Paul Troger, visitors can also see the special exhibition "Cisterscapes - we are European cultural heritage".
Exhibition “Cultural landscape as European heritage”
Old town hall Zwettl Sparkassenplatz 3, ZwettlWhat is a Cistercian monastery landscape? An exhibition in the old town hall of Zwettl explores this question. This presentation is freely accessible to all interested parties until fall 2025. The exhibition is accompanied by materials for different age groups, which can be used to playfully explore the elements of a monastery landscape. Curious?
ONLINE lecture “Does monastic craft training have a future?”
ONLINEThe motto of the Klosterland relay is: "Education and monasteries" and invites you to immerse yourself in various areas of monastic culture. Our KLOSTERLAND member Dr. Felicitas von Aretin (journalist and author) and her discussion partners, who come from very different monasteries, will bring the diversity of monastic worlds to life on the respective salon evenings. Michael van Ooyen, master goldsmith at Europakloster, and trainees Magdalena Strübler and Levin Vitola will be the evening's discussion partners. Please REGISTER for the online salon to: klostersalon-online@klosterland.de Background: The order books of the gold and silversmiths at the Europakloster are so full that two apprentices are now learning the ancient craft. This makes the workshop one of the few monastic businesses to have managed the transformation. While the goldsmith's workshop was originally set up by a monk from the monastery, it is now run by the secular master goldsmith Michael van Ooyen, who is supervised by the prior of the monastery, Brother Thomas, as an artist monk and head of the overall workshops. The workshops work closely with other monastery businesses, such as the glass workshops at Schlierbach Monastery, within the framework of artist collaborations. The result is not only liturgical objects, but also entire, healing interiors for churches, monasteries and clinics. The conversation will focus on the future of the old monastic craft traditions and how they can be preserved in the future. We will also talk about what is important in the work of a church goldsmith, how spirituality and craftsmanship are connected and what challenges the profession faces.


