The abbey garden

A Baroque garden as a place for people to meet and relax

At Neustift today you can see what the ideal garden would have looked like in the Baroque era. The abbey garden is one of the most important examples of historical garden design in Tyrol and was restored in its original Baroque form in 2004.

It still serves as the abbey’s kitchen garden and as an ornamental garden for the use of the canons. Surrounded by a high wall, it is divided into three parts: an orchard meadow with a pavilion, a herb garden with numerous medicinal and spice plants and an ornamental garden with a fountain and an aviary.

The soul finds nourishment in what pleases it.

St. Augustine

Fish farming at the abbey

Because it was forbidden to eat meat on days of fasting, the kitchen of Neustift Abbey always needed a good supply of fresh fish. These were kept in roofed fish troughs which originally surrounded the tower-like garden pavilion from the 17th century. The pavilion, the so-called piszin, is the main feature of the first garden section and was also popular with the canons, who used the room in the tower in their free time. On its ceiling are scenes from the life of St Augustine.