Friday, August 22, 2008

World's largest monastery library restored to its baroque splendour


The world's largest monastery library, in the quaint Austrian town of Admont, has re-opened after four years of restoration work that has returned all its rococo splendour to this baroque jewel.

The ornate library is the size of a cathedral: 13 metres high, 14 metres wide and 70 metres long.

In the ceiling, seven majestic domes boast wonderful frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte that seem more three-dimensional than flat.

Below, niches filled with ancient books cover the immaculate white walls around a chequer-patterned marble floor, decorated with Josef Stammel's sculptures of "The four last things" -- death, last judgment, heaven and hell.



Via

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