Around 30 visitors toured the new Cisterscapes visitor centre in Zwettl’s Old Town Hall as part of the first ‘Museum Monday’ event of the season in Zwettl.On 6 July 2026, the first Zwettl ‘Museum Monday’ of the season took place, organised in collaboration between the Zwettl Town Archives and the Zwettl Museum Association. Around 30 people took part and visited the new Cisterscapes Visitor Centre in the Old Town Hall. City archivist Elisabeth Moll guided the participants through the exhibition and provided fascinating insights into the history and distinctive features of the Zwettl monastic landscape. The focus was on the question of what actually defines a monastic landscape.
As the Cistercians built and managed their monasteries according to strict rules, they all share similar structures. The monastery, situated at the heart of the cultural landscape, is surrounded by a ring of granges, extensive monastic woodland and fields. Ponds, mills and hydraulic structures characterise the monastic landscape just as much as town farms and settlement patterns. Although the Cistercians shaped their surroundings over the centuries and, through their farming practices, created a cultural landscape that remains recognisable to this day, the Zwettl monastic landscape has a character all of its own and is remarkable for its exceptionally good state of preservation. Together with 16 other partners, this cultural landscape was awarded the European Heritage Label in 2024.
The new exhibition on the ground floor of Zwettl’s Old Town Hall, created as part of the Interreg project ‘CISTERSCAPES – Vyšší Brod – Zwettl – Žďár nad Sázavou’, invites visitors to discover the history of the monastic landscape in a modern and interactive way and to learn about its unique cultural heritage. The exhibition is open to the public free of charge on weekdays from 8 am to 3.30 pm, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10 am to 4 pm.
