The Freyung and the Scottish Abbey
Why is it significant?
You are on a long, tilted triangle of a square, with palaces along one side and, at its upper end, the twin towers of a church and the plain walls of an old abbey. In the middle, a bronze fountain with an allegory of Austria, surrounded by figures standing for the great rivers of the old empire.
Key Facts
| Place | The Freyung and the Scottish Abbey |
|---|---|
| Address | Freyung 6, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.21200, 16.36500 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna's Old Town Lanes: Stephansdom, Roman Stones and Medieval Legends |
| Generated | Generated |
You are on a long, tilted triangle of a square, with palaces along one side and, at its upper end, the twin towers of a church and the plain walls of an old abbey. In the middle, a bronze fountain with an allegory of Austria, surrounded by figures standing for the great rivers of the old empire.
The abbey is called the Schottenstift, the Scottish Abbey, and the name is a medieval misunderstanding. When Duke Heinrich II founded it in 1155, he invited Benedictine monks from Regensburg, and they came originally from Ireland. In medieval Latin the Irish were called Scoti, so the Irish monks became Scottish monks, and Vienna has had a Scottish church without a single Scot ever since. The duke himself is buried inside.
The name of the square is the second clue. Freyung comes from an old word for freedom. The abbey had the right of sanctuary: a fugitive who reached its ground could not be arrested by the city's officers. So imagine this square in the Middle Ages, with a man running up the slope, guards close behind him, and everything depending on whether he crossed an invisible line before they caught him.
The Irish monks did not stay forever; in the early fifteenth century they were replaced by German-speaking Benedictines, who are still here, more than six hundred years later. The abbey runs one of the oldest and best-known schools in the city, and its collections include a famous late-Gothic altarpiece with one of the earliest views of Vienna painted into its background.
Around the square stand the palaces of noble families who wanted to live close to court, and in the nineteenth century the Freyung became a fashionable address. But its oldest layer is still the abbey's promise of protection. Now walk down the Freyung to Renngasse, follow it and then Wipplingerstraße east, and look for a slender Gothic spire crowned with stone lace.