Chants from the Vienna Woods

We’re driving deep into the Vienna Woods flanked by oak, beech and fir. A dirt path trails off. At first, it’s in the light, then dappled, then dark as the woods claim the imaginary walker.

Many composers were inspired by these enigmatic surrounds. Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss and more. Each in awe of nature, wandering with their knapsacks on their backs, painting in music what they saw and heard. I’m on a cultural tour with Limelight Arts Travel, in a coach named Mozart, heading from Vienna towards Bohemia.

We stop mid-woods at the Heiligenkreuz Abbey (the Holy Cross Monastery), named for a relic of the cross brought here after the third crusade. It is the world’s oldest continuously active monastery – established in 1133, it is celebrating its 890th year.

The cloistered courtyard is a place of prayer and meditation. At its centre is a golden baroque column glorifying the Holy Trinity and the ascension of Mary. It is circled by lime trees popping with iridescent spring leaves that filter the cobalt sky.

The abbey is a curious combination of medieval architecture to which Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque components were later added.

There is beauty in every detail: the marble columns, ancient door hinges, fading frescoes and medieval tombstones. Instead of a cascade of colours, the stained-glass windows were crafted in black and white geometry representing the simple life.

I peep through wrought iron gates into the vaulted mint-and-rose Chapel of the Dead where deceased monks are placed for a 24-hour vigil before burial. It’s the macabre guard-of-honour candlesticks that tickle my irony bone. Their tallow candles are held high by hip-swinging, bronze skeletons.

We are taken into the Frateria, the monks’ workroom, where back in the day it would have been a stone-cold scene of shoemakers, tailors and joiners.

Leading off to the right is the scriptorium. Being a scribe was a prized job as their frigid room was warmed by the calefactory below (the only room with a fireplace where monks warmed themselves after a long work day). The rising heat also kept the liturgical, medical and scientific manuscripts safe from damp. Unbeknown to the scribes and illuminators were the toxic perils of lead, mercury and arsenic used in their pigments.