Visiting Stift Admont Library in Admont, Austria

One of my favourite things to do while traveling is to visit the world's most beautiful libraries. Often steeped in history and providing oodles of inspiration, stepping foot inside a big room filled with books just does something to my brain chemistry.

→ Check out my guide to visiting the world's most beautiful libraries!

Austria, where I currently live, seems to be just full of beautiful old abbeys, monasteries, churches and idyllic escapes that are well worth an afternoon's visit. Many are home to some of the world's most stunning libraries, their tenants often to be found gracing many of the world's lists of ones to visit in your lifetime.

The library at Stift Admont is one such library. And it's quite famous - it's the largest monastery library in the entire world. It's very likely you've seen photos of this airy, gorgeous, pink-white-gold library before.

How to Get to Stift Admont

By car: Stift Admont is about 2.25 hours from Salzburg, 1.5 hours from Graz and three hours from Vienna by car, which is definitely the easiest way to visit the Abbey. We drove from Salzburg through a gorgeous winter wonderland - check out the photos below. There is free parking on site at the Abbey.

By train: From Graz, a train runs direct to Leizen which takes 1.75 hours, where you transfer to a bus for a half-hour bus ride to the Abbey. From Salzburg, it is possible by train but takes almost four hours to complete the journey which involves a train to Linz, a transfer train to Ardning and then a bus to the Abbey. From Vienna, it also takes about four hours with a train to Leoben then a transfer train to Leizen and a bus to the Abbey.

By day tour: I found one day tour from Vienna which includes a visit to Stift Admont as well as Hallstatt and the moutains of Salzkammergut.

How to Visit Stift Admont

Stift Admont was founded in 1074, celebrating 950 years when we visited. Books have always been on site at the Abbey, however the library as it looks today in its gorgeous pink-white-gold airy Baroque style was completed in 1776.

Today, the library at Stift Admont is the largest monastery library in the entire world. Home to more than 70,000 works, stepping foot inside this library was seriously dreamlike. Built by the Austrian architect Josef Hueber, he designed the library following the ideas of the Enlightenment:

"Light should fill the room as well as the mind."

Unlike some other famous libraries I've been to, you can visit this library on your own (although guided tours are available twice-daily). You are also permitted to take as many photos as you like!

→ Find the latest opening times and admission prices are on the Abbey website.

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Jana Meerman

Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.

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