Skull cult and pencil cult
1,000 years of the Hippolyte Monastery
Around the year 800, a monastery was built on the site of today's St. Pölten Cathedral Square, where the skull relic of the Roman martyr Hippolytus was venerated.
The monastery quickly developed into a spiritual and economic centre, and a town grew up around it;
The close links between the town and the monastery are still recognisable today in the name of St. Pölten, which goes back to St. Hippolytus.
The oldest monastery in what is now Lower Austria was founded by Benedictines and converted into an Augustinian canonry in the 11th/12th century.
In 1784, the monastery was dissolved by Joseph II. The monastery became the seat of the St. Pölten bishops and the collegiate church became the cathedral.
The Museum am Dom is located in the former monastery premises, including the magnificent abbey library.
