Saint Paul's Abbey, Lavanttal 2.41

Saint Paul's Abbey in Lavanttal is a Benedictine monastery established in 1091 near the present-day market town of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The premises centered on the Romanesque monastery church were largely rebuilt in a Baroque style in the 17th century.The abbey was dissolved in 1782 by decree of Emperor Joseph II, but resettled in 1809 with monks descending from St. Blaise Abbey in the Black Forest.HistoryThe abbey was founded by the Sponheim count Engelbert I, Margrave of Istria since 1090, on the site of a former castle and a church consecrated by Archbishop Hartwig of Salzburg in 991. A follower of Pope Gregory VII and Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg in the Investiture Controversy with Emperor Henry IV, Engelbert had forfeited his county in the Tyrolean Puster Valley but could retire to the Carinthian estates his father Siegfried I of Spanheim had acquired through his marriage with the local aristocrat Richgard.