Kartause Gaming is a former 14th-century Carthusian monastery located in Gaming near Scheibbs in the Mostviertel of Lower Austria. In addition to apartments and hotel rooms, it offers ample space for organizing weddings, meetings and events of all kinds.
Kartause Gaming History
The monastery was founded in 1330 by Albert II, Duke of Austria, who intended it as a place of dynastic burial. He himself was buried there after his death in 1358, as well as his wife Joan of Pfirt and her daughter-in-law Elizabeth of Bohemia. The first community, coming from the Charterhouse of Mauerbach in Vienna, included a double complement, under a precedent, of 24 monks instead of the usual 12, and the scale of the buildings from the beginning reflected the dimensions of the monastery.
The gaming Charterhouse received extremely generous endowments from its founder, including many surrounding lands in the Erlauf valley, and the town and market of Scheibbs.
It was dissolved in 1782 in the reforms of Emperor Joseph II. In 1797 the bodies of the founder, his wife and daughter-in-law were transferred to the parish church of Gaming and in 1825 the monastery and the estate, including extensive forest areas, passed to private ownership. In 1915 it was bought by the abbot of Melk abbey.
In 1983 the monastery's premises, but not the remaining properties, were purchased by an Austrian architect, Walter Hildebrand, who has since worked on the restoration. The renovated premises are partly occupied by a hotel and partly by the Franciscan University of Steubenville (main campus in Ohio, USA). Since 2004 there is also a museum, with exhibits on the history of the Charterhouse of games and Carthusians in general.