Fire in Melk Abbey in 1805
In a fire in Melk Abbey in Lower Austria on December 14, 1805, around two to three hundred soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army who were interned as prisoners of war in the northern bastion of the abbey were killed. They had previously been captured by French troops in the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2nd) . Presumably they had lit the fire themselves to keep themselves warm, but hadn't taken into account that the smoke in the bastion had no outlet.
memorial
The soldiers were buried in a mass grave about halfway between Melk and the village of Winden , the place was initially only marked by a simple wooden cross. In 1891, Tsar Alexander III. However, erecting a memorial made of black marble , around which some trees have been planted. The marble cross bears the inscription (translated):
“In the eternal memory of the 300 Russian soldiers who died abroad in Melk in 1805 and were buried here. There is no greater love than giving one's life for one's friends. [Bible verse in Old Church Slavonic , Joh 15, 13 EU ] At the highest command "
In 1945, on the initiative of the political department of the 20th Rifle Corps, it was renovated, fenced in and provided with an archway by Soviet occupation soldiers. Today the memorial is located directly on the B 1 federal highway ( Wiener Straße ) and is a listed building .
swell
- Ignaz Franz Keiblinger : History of the Benedictine monastery Melk in Lower Austria, its possessions and surroundings , Vienna 1851–1869, p. 1061 ff.
- Anton Eder (Ed.): 150th annual report of the Stiftsgymnasium Melk , Melk 2008, p. 192 f.
- Barbara Stelzl-Marx: "Eternal Glory to the Heroes of the Red Army", graves of Soviet war dead in Austria , p. 5, FN 20.
