Lambach Abbey: Guess the Most Famous Guest Who Stayed there in 1770?

On our tours through Baroque Upper Austria my husband and I arrived one day in Stadl-Paura where the amazing Holy Trinity Church is. From there you have this view to Lambach Abbey as it was an abbot from there who had built the church and wanted to see it from his rooms.

In the 1620s the then only 25 years old abbot Placidus Hieber von Greifenfels had built the Baroque church which is said to be Filiberto Lucchese´s first work in today´s Austria. He was later working for the emperors Ferdinand III and Leopold I. For the latter he built a wing of the Hofburg palace, the still existing Leopoldinischer Trakt.

The church´s walls and ceiling shine in brilliant yellow/ochre. The colour is original. It had been covered for many decades with a white layer and was only some years ago re-painted. There are double pilasters along the nave´s walls crowned by a  mighty continuous entablature above and by fresco paintings and stucco work in the vault.

Furniture and fittings are in most of the representative rooms originally baroque, such as in the Refectory (s. photo above), in the Ambulatory and in the Library. They are highly decorated rooms with stucco works and fresco paintings. A very famous lady, travelling in 1770 from Vienna to Paris, must have known this all as she had made a halt in Lambach abbey. Who was the mysterious lady?

This was the bed in which she slept when she came from Vienna. The reason why she had to go to France was her marriage. She was married with the then crown prince of France whose official title was Dauphin. When his grandfather died in 1774 he became king and his name was then Louis XVI. So what was name of his wife …???

This figure on the left side of the stage knows the secret. She was painted for the special occasion. A monk had written a humorous stage play that was performed in the newly decorated theatre to welcome the celebrity in Lambach abbey. For all those who want to know, please read the article here.