Stiftsgymnasium Melk

Stiftsgymnasium Melk is a Roman Catholic Benedictine-run gymnasium located in Melk, Austria. The gymnasium is located within and run by the well-known monastery Melk Abbey. Founded in the 12th century as a monastic school, it is also the oldest continuously operating school in present-day Austria. History Medieval monastic school The earliest documents proving the existence of a medieval monastic school at Melk Abbey are a parish register and some parchment scraps dating back to about 1140 and 1160 respectively. It is assumed that it was founded sometime in the first half of the 12th century, but it may already hung over from the monastery's establishment in 1089. In the 15th century, alongside the Melk Reform strongly influencing Austrian and Bavarian Benedictine religious life, the school flourished and gained reputation. So, for instance, in 1446 a monk called Simon wrote an education book for six-year-old King Ladislaus the Posthumous of Hungary. However, starting from around 1530 and mainly caused by the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the Habsburg Empire, the abbey suffered from a dramatic lack of personnel, and so did the school. In 1566, there were only six clergymen. This crisis went on until the end of the 16th century, when in the wake of the Counter-Reformation more and more students from South German Jesuit Colleges attended the school. Those students, amongst them also poeta laureatus Laurentius Flenheintius, brought along very good education and raised the school's standard again. Therefore, in 1596 it was reshaped along the lines of a Jesuit College. Through this reform only the four lower classes remained in Melk, to finish school students had to do two further sessions in Vienna. In 1707, Abbot Berthold Dietmayr converted the school into a full, contemporary gymnasium.