Hotels near St. Peter's Abbey (Stift St. Peter)

St. Peter's Abbey (Stift St. Peter) was founded by Saint Rupert in 696 and is the oldest continuously operating monastery in the German-speaking world. The Benedictine community still lives here, and the complex includes the Romanesque-Baroque abbey church, a cloistered cemetery pressed against the sheer rock wall of the Monchsberg, a working library with roughly 100,000 volumes (including manuscripts from the 9th century), and the eerie catacombs cut directly into the cliff face above the cemetery. Climb 48 steps up to the two small chapels carved into the rock, dedicated in 1178 and 1180, which offer a strange, cave-like view down over the graveyard's ornate wrought-iron crosses. This graveyard is where Robert Wise filmed the escape scene from The Sound of Music, though the actual set was rebuilt on a Hollywood soundstage. Next to the church, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium claims a written mention from 803, making it the oldest inn in Central Europe. Pro Tip: The catacomb entry sits at the far right of the cemetery and is easy to miss; enter through the small door signed Petersfriedhof and go early so you have the chapels to yourself, since only a handful of visitors fit at a time.