1000 years of the Babenbergs in Austria

On July 21, 976, the dynasty of counts, later known as the Babenbergs, was enfeoffed with the Margraviate on the Danube. The Margraviate was transformed into a duchy in 1156 and developed into a territory. This land of Austria was the origin of all forms of rule that bore this name in the course of history, and it is still often referred to today as the heartland of the Republic. The period of Babenberg rule, which lasted 270 years (976 to 1246), was the decisive phase in the development of our country.

Lilienfeld Abbey was chosen for the 1976 provincial exhibition not only because it was founded by the Babenbergs, but also because it was able to preserve so much of the building fabric from the Babenberg period that significant parts of the rooms used for the exhibition were themselves exhibits. The monastery was extensively restored for the provincial exhibition.

“For the first time, an attempt is being made to document the afterlife of a historical period in the consciousness of the Austrians. [...] The Babenberg period, primarily of course the person of Leopold the Saint, has always appealed to artists and poets, a sign of how popular this period was in the consciousness of Austrians,” said exhibition director Karl Gutkas.

On the one hand, a team of 70 scholars attempted to place the history of Austria in the context of Central Europe, and on the other, to draw on the various branches of historical scholarship and “on the basis of the work of several generations of researchers from these disciplines, to create a new synopsis that is suitable for providing many Austrians with a contemporary historical picture of the Babenberg era” (Gutkas).

The exhibition was divided into two large parts. In the first part, the actual Babenberg period (976 to 1246) was presented with the help of documents, contemporary manuscripts, archaeological finds, works of architecture, arts and crafts and Romanesque art, supplemented by maps and photomontages. The second section showed how this decisive historical epoch in Austria was and is viewed in later centuries by science, art, literature and folklore right up to the present day.

Governor Andreas Maurer commented on this exhibition: “It shows the origins of Austria and documents how strong the parallels are between the function of our country in the Babenberg era and in the present day.”

Expectations were far exceeded: With 465,841 visitors, a new record was set in the history of provincial exhibitions; the strongest month was October with 98,746 visitors. The catalog had a print run of 58,000 copies, and 1,133 copies were sold on one day alone (May 27). Exhibition director Gutkas saw the exhibition as having an even greater impact “in the field of popular education and political education. If a hundred thousand Austrians informed themselves about a topic of their own history, 250,000 were guided through it, [...] then the Babenberg Exhibition can be seen as a large-scale popular education event that had an unimagined broad impact.”

Lilienfeld Abbey