Melk abbey has hundreds of thousands of guests every year. Via the Imperial Staircase and the Imperial Corridor in the monastery’s Southern Wing guests can reach the abbey museum which is situated in the former Imperial guestrooms. An exhibition titled “The Path from Yesterday to Today” illustrates the abbey’s historical significance and its current tasks.

The museum shines a light on the forces which have carried and shaped the monastery over time and gives background information. Every room is dedicated to a different topic:

• Saint Benedict and the foundation of the Benedictine order
• The Babenberg rulers, Saint Coloman and the foundation of Melk Abbey
• The ups and downs of the abbey’s and the Church’s History during the middle ages
• Romanesque and gothic style
• Baroque attitude towards life
• Abbot Berthold Dietmayr and Melk Abbey during the Baroque age
• Enlightened absolutism and Josephinism
• People and tasks in Melk Abbey
• Breu altar / Melk altar from 1502
• Economy and architectural history of Melk Abbey
• Architecture and art of Melk Abbey – model of the building

After the visit of the Imperial rooms guests come to the Marble Hall, the balcony, and the library. The highlight of a visit is eventually the High Baroque abbey church.