Melk

Updated: Apr 21, 2022

Beautiful vineyards in a river valley - Wachau Cultural Landscape 970

What and Why

Dominated by the Benedictine (Latin : Benedicti) abbey on top of a small hill, Melk is a picturesque Renaissance town in the famous vineyard valley of Wachau. The area is famous for its vineyards and apricot trees and produces the famous Riesling and Grüner Veltliner since the 8th century CE.

One interesting feature of the local winemakers is that they offer their homemade wine at the so-called Heuriger, which are wine-taverns where food and local wines are offered. These taverns are open only for a few weeks in the year during wine harvest. The Heuriger Gemütlichkeit atmosphere about sharing wine, food and laughter amongst a young group has developed into a special and important local culture.

Toponymy

While it is tempting to relate the word Melk with milk (German: melken, to milk), it actually comes from its older form Mölk, which comes from the Old Slavic word meaning border, as Danube (German : Donau) used to be a natural border of the region.

Wachau comes from its old form Wahowa, with unknown origin.

See

The entire Wachau is a 80-km riverbank stretch which is a favourite day-out trip from Vienna (Wien). The region includes, aside from Melk, Krems, Dürnstein, Spitz, plus a few other vineyard tows. We shall focus on Melk where we spent the day there.

Melk Benedictine Abbey (Benediktinerstift Melk)

The must-see in Melk, the imposing Baroque-style Melk Benedictine Abbey (Benediktinerstift Melk) is built on a bluff overlooking the Danube. Founded in the 11th century CE but the current facade is mostly rebuilt in the early 18th century CE, the abbey contains remains of several members of the House of Babenberg, Austria's first ruling dynasty.

The abbey's monastic library is renowned for its extensive manuscript collection. Due to its academic status the abbey became the centre of the local reformation which reinvigorated the monastic life of Austria and Southern Germany during the 15th century CE.

Melk

The town centre is a very pleasant Germanic town with lots of taverns serving local wines.

In the city centre, it is easy to locate the Church of the Assumption (Mariä-Himmelfahrt-Kirche) with is impressive spire.

The town hall (Rathaus) is a dominant building in the town, but it was closed during our visit.

Schallaburg

Schallaburg is a castle 5 km away from Melk.

Buy and Do

Wachau wine (Wachauer Wein)

As mentioned, coming to Wachau and not leaving with a bottle is next to criminal. Wachau is one of country's most established and notable wine regions, specialising in dry wines made from Riesling and Grüner Veltliner. Wachau wines have its unique classification system based on alcohol level. The three classification levels for Wachau wine include the lightest Steinfeder for wines up to 11.5% alcohol level, Federspiel for wines between 11.5–12.5% and Smaragd that must have a minimum of 12.5% alcohol level.

Clearly the Wachau community is very proud of the vinery tradition and the community has formed an organisation called Vinea Wachau to create a trade association that will not only promote Wachau wines worldwide but also protect the image and integrity of the Wachau wine region. Members of the Vinea Wachau not only must follow Austria's strict wine laws but also abide by the association's own standards. Every bottle of wine from Wachau is assured of quality by Vinea Wachau.

The only unfortunate part is that the Heuringer were not open during our visit period.

Getting There and Around

The entrance fee into the abbey is EUR €12.50. Melk is tiny, and can be completed within good half-day. The place is slightly remote and has to drive.