monasteries - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1984 - 3.50 Shilling

Pens and monasteries are those places and places, where still today mostly great works of art, magnificent building complexes, valuable collections, but also widely branched plants remind of a centuries-old past. This also applies to this station on our philatelic foray. Geras, in the district Horn, 60 km north of Krems, scarcely 100 km in the northwest of Vienna, was donated as monastery 1153. It was from the beginning a center for many pastoral ministries in the area of ​​the county Pernegg, which belonged to the Diocese of Passau and with the founding of the monastery Geras passed into its administration and was handed over to the Premonstratensians. Through its exposed boundary position, and not only politically, but also in Volkish respect, over the centuries it was subject to the interplay of the related historical developments. In 1620, Mansfeld troops destroyed the monastery and its outbuildings, also pillaging the market, leaving Geras as a place of devastation. Although reconstruction began in 1627, financial difficulties made it difficult to revive the Premonstratensian monastery quickly. It was not until the second half of the 17th century, under the careful direction of the abbot Johannes Westhaus (1650-1674), that the most important monastery buildings were built, which still today characterize the image of Geras.