Seitenstetten

Seitenstetten, Lower Austria, market town in the district of Amstetten, alt. 349 m, pop. 2,981, area 30.48 km², on the Treffling river, in the western part of the northern Alpine Foothills. - Abbey secondary school (founded in 1814), Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (old people´s home), airport for amateur pilots; production of glass-making machines, textile industry, trades, day tourism (around 50,000 visitors per year). - Benedictine abbey (1112), early Gothic pier basilica (1254-1300), altered in Baroque style in 1630 and 1677 (façade 1701-1711), sculptures by F. J. Feichtmayr, altar pieces (around 1700) by K. von Reselfeldt, grave monuments of abbots, late-Romanesque knight chapel (13^th century) with two glass paintings (1828) by L. Schnorr von Carolsfeld and A. Kothgasser; reconstruction of the abbey started by J. Munggenast (1719), basic structures by J. G. Hayberger (1747), 160 m long north front with 35 window axes, splendid ornaments on the east front (1724/25) by J. G. Piazzol, abbey stairways with ceiling fresco by B. Altomonte (1744), mineral collection with fresco by J. Bergl and Rococo cabinets; library (approximately 60,000 volumes, 270 medieval and 400 modern manuscripts, 230 incunabuli), ceiling fresco by P. Troger (1741) and painting by M. J. Schmidt; 19 oil paintings by M. J. Schmidt (1760-1764) in the summer refectory, collection of paintings (A. Magnasco, P. Brueghel, B. Altomonte, D. Gran, P. Troger, M. J. Schmidt), sculptures (G. R. Donner, T. Stammel), archaeological gallery; estate belonging to the abbey (1769) with large fruit wine (must) cellar and granary; music archive (Schubert collection with 300 first editions).

Literature: P. Ortmayr and Ä. Decker, Das Benediktinerstift Seitenstetten, 1955; B. Wagner, S. Udaschalks Erbe im Wandel der Zeit, 1980; Seitenstetten, Kunst und Mönchtum an der Wiege Österr., exhibition catalogue, 1988; E. Müller, Siedlungsgeographie des Gebietes von Seitenstetten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung kunstgeographischer Aspekte, doctoral thesis, Salzburg 1989.