Towering over the Danube and its surroundings, Göttweig Abbey fully lives up to its reputation as Austria’s Monte Cassino. Sitting four-square on a hill set back from the river, the Benedictine monastery looks every bit as formidable as the famed Italian headquarters of the order.

Rebuilt after a fire in 1718, Göttweig’s wealth rested, as today, on the rich forests and vineyards of the region known as the Wachau, today a Unesco world heritage site. Once the dividing line between the Romans to the south and the barbarians on the Danube’s northern shore, the wide but fast flowing river remains the area’s defining feature.