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Melk Abbey is Austria's most famous example of Baroque architecture. The first documented reference to the name Melk dates from the year 831, it was then probably a clifftop castle on the site of the present-day abbey.

The Baroque period was really the peak in abbey's history, the whole complex was rebuilt within 34 years . Berthold Dietmayr (1670-1739) was appointed as an Abbot of Melk in 1700 and he wanted to show the abbey's importance. He and master builder Jakob Prandtauer (1660-1726) decided they would completely reconstruct the Abbey in Baroque style. The foundation stone of the new church was laid in 1702. Abbot Berthold, known as Melk's "builder priest" , had to find 30,000 guilders a year to finance the construction of the new abbey. Dietmayr was appointed Dean of Vienna University in 1706 and he served as privy counsellor to three successive emperors, Leopold I, Joseph I and Karl VI. Prandtauer did not, however, live to see the Abbey project to be finished. Dietmayr contracted some of the outstanding artists of his day. Viennese stage designer Antonio Beduzzi planned the interior of the church. The creation of the marble altar carvings was given to theatrical architect Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena . The painter Paul Troger was to do the frescos in the library and in the marble hall. The church frescos were made by Michael Rottmayr. The reconstruction of the abbey was complete for the almost  by 1736. Two years later a fire destroyed much of the new complex and Abbot Berthold immediately ordered his life's work should be rebuilt, but he did not live to see it finally completed. In 1925 one of the abbey's most valuable possessions, a Gutenberg Bible, had to be sold in order to raise the money for necessary repairs.
Melk Abbey is a wonderful place to visit, but you do not needed to take the guided tour. Go alone and take the time to pause and see all its wonderful decorative art.