Millstatt is a market town in Carinthia, Austria. Within the Central Eastern Alps it is situated on a peninsula on the northern shore of the Lake Millstatt, in the district of Spittal an der Drau.
The traditional health resort and spa town is known for its former Benedictine abbey, founded about 1070. The municipality of Millstatt also contains the cadastral communes Obermillstatt, Matzelsdorf and Laubendorf.
While the oldest archaeological artifacts found in the area date back to the Neolithic, the name "Millstatt" may refer to the Celtic expression "mils" meaning mountain stream or brook. The Celts entered this region from the 5th century BC onwards, their kingdom Noricum came under control of the Roman Empire in 16 BC. During the Migration Period in the 6th century Slavic tribes settled here in the principality of Karantania, which became a march of Bavaria and the Frankish Empire in the late 8th century. According to legend, a Karantanian duke Domitian († 802?) converted to Christianity and built the first church of Millstatt. He also had one thousand statues of pagan gods ("mille statuae", see the coat of arms) gathered and thrown into the lake.
Beneath the market stand the extensive buildings of the former Benedictine monastery with its four massive Renaissance towers situated between the former knightly palace of the order of St. George finished in 1499 and the monastery church at the highest point in the north.
The monastery museum is situated within in the cloister and presents a summary of the abbey's history and its cultural heritage, e.g. Neolithic artifacts and facsimiles of the Millstatt manuscript. The collection also includes a Romanesque shrine from about 1140, a dungeon from the 16th century and a Renaissance chest from the studio of Andrea Mantegna. The cassone once was part of the dowry of Paola Gonzaga, the daughter of Ludovico II of Gonzaga and deceased wife of Count Leonhard of Gorizia, who gave it to the order of St. George in 1495.
Since 1981 the "Millstatt Symposium", an academic conference, takes place every year, where researchers discuss different subjects concerning the history of Millstatt and Carinthia.
In summer the "Musikwochen Millstatt" (Millstatt Music Weeks) festival performs various concerts in and around the monastery church including sacred music, choral and classical works as well as jazz, chamber music, piano and organ recitals.
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