The elder tree

The 7-armed candelabra comes from the time the monastery is founded and is the oldest object in it. For a long time it has a wooden core but today a steel pipe can be found under the bronze coating.

The traditional belief is that the wood came from the elder tree on whose branches Margrave Leopold is supposed to have found his wife Agnes’ veil - the spot where he establishes Klosterneuburg Monastery. Various pieces of wood can be found in the treasury; however they are 17th century and not from this period.

The so-called veil legend arises in 1371 but is historically inaccurate; the castle on the Leopoldsberg, where the Margravine consort Agnes is said to be standing on the battlements at the moment the wind blows her veil off, isn’t built until the 13th century. And at the time Klosterneuburg Monastery is founded, the still inhabited walls of a Roman fort occupy this spot. So Leopold can’t have been hunting here.