Yesterday turned out to be a lovely day - a typical late summer say with warm sunshine, but not too warm in the shade. I went as promised to do the tour in the St Florian Augustinian monastery. The required minimum of 6 people turned up and it went ahead. It was well worth it, absolutely beautiful inside eg the library and the Kaiser's Hall.
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| St Florian Monastery |
This is Anton Bruckner country; he was born not far away, was educated in the choir school here, composed a fair amount and was organist here for many years. So that was on my list and is now ticked off. More information is available for any of my readers who would like to know more!
They have had quite a nice idea that I might pursue today; there is a walk that is laid out from the village where he was born to St Florian. You get an mp3 player or walkman and stop at places along the way to admire the countryside and listen to extracts from his music. I might give that a go but this morning it is a bit damp. May just do the admin instead. The problem is that it's not a circular tour so you have to walk back. We'll see.
The guide explained to us that it was a good thing the Americans came to the monastery at the end of the war because they were able to protect the monastery from the marauding Russians as they went home. They were described as 'peasants from the far side of Siberia,' and it seems, they destroyed all in their way. They would have really enjoyed burning the monastery and all its contents. So well done to the American soldiers on this occasion.
Since the weather was so nice and I was on a roll on the tourism front I drove about 15 miles to Schloss Hartheim after a light lunch back at the ranch.
I had seen something about this on TV - probably the World at War - and there were lots of references to it at Dachau and Mauthausen. Schloss Hartheim is a lovely renaissance, italianate building. Inside you could put on a very successful performance of Romeo and Juliet appearing on the upper floors. There are some additional buildings not in the photo that are a musical/theatre centre of some sort. I could hear somebody practising the trombone.
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| Schloss Hartheim, Alkoven |
However this place has a very sinister history. For all its beauty it's where thousands were gassed in the war. It had a special role of being the place where initially the mentally ill or people with disabilities met their end. Eventually it was used for anybody. The simple strategy was a lorry parked outside with the exhaust fed into the room on the ground floor of one of the towers. They all died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
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| Schloss Hartheim, interior |
The pictures show a steel grill both inside, and outside where the lorry parked. The unfortunates were marched along this lovely arcade to their end. Unfortunately the visit and exhibition were closed when I got there at about 3.30. So I'm guessing at the details. There is an exhibition about human rights regardless of disability and so on. I think I may go back there today particulalry if the weather doesn't pick up a bit.
What a cynical place.
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