Nonnberg Abbey

By the church facade and among the grave slabs, only a small part of Nonnberg Abbey is open: the nuns’ residential buildings remain behind closed doors. The monastery arose in the early eighth century as a community for women, and its life here has continued ever since without interruption. Both Nonnberg and the district of Nonntal below received their names from it. The crypt holds the stone tomb of the first abbess, while visitors are admitted to the church and cemetery.

In nineteen twenty-six, the widower Georg von Trapp, a former captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the father of seven children, came to the abbess of Nonnberg Abbey. His daughter Maria was recovering from scarlet fever and could not attend school; her father was looking for a private tutor for her. The abbess chose Maria Augusta Kutschera.

Maria had graduated from teacher training college and came to Nonnberg Abbey intending to become a nun. However, she had not yet taken her vows: she was a candidate and worked as an educator at the convent school for girls. The enclosed routine had affected her health badly, so the von Trapp assignment was considered beneficial for her as well. Maria was to live with the family for ten months, teach the sick girl, and then return to prepare for monastic life.

She taught only one daughter, although film later turned her into the governess of all seven children. With the others, Maria sang, walked, and played—and grew attached to them. Georg asked her to remain in the house as their mother.

That proposal meant giving up the goal for which she had come to Nonnberg Abbey. According to Maria’s memoirs, she was not in love with Georg at the time: the children were dear to her. She returned here for advice. The nuns convinced her that marriage would not be a betrayal of her calling. In nineteen twenty-seven, Maria and Georg were married in the abbey church. She became the mother of Georg von Trapp’s seven children, then gave birth to three more. In the early nineteen thirties, the family began performing as a choral ensemble; their story later became the basis for The Sound of Music.

The abbess could decide Georg’s request here because Nonnberg Abbey was originally founded as a community for women. Around seven fourteen, Bishop Rupert summoned his relative Erentrudis to Salzburg with several companions and appointed her the first abbess. Nuns have lived here ever since without interruption; Nonnberg Abbey is considered the oldest women’s monastery in the German-speaking world. Both Nonnberg and the “valley of the nuns” below, Nonntal, owe their names to the community. Erentrudis’s stone tomb survives in the crypt, while the monastic buildings remain closed to outsiders; the church and cemetery are accessible.

The real Maria was married in this very church. The film crew was not allowed inside the abbey, so the screen wedding was filmed at Mondsee Church. Only the facade and cemetery at Nonnberg Abbey appeared on screen.