and the Holy Roman Emperor. During the 15th century conflict of the Habsburg duke Frederick III with the Counts of Celje, the troops of Count Ulrich II devastated the premises. The abbey was again ravaged by Ottoman forces in 1476 and besieged by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus in 1480. In the early Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the Habsburg rulers increasingly encumbered the monastery with tributes. They rivalled with the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg to exert influence, while the conventual life decayed. In the 16th century, large parts of Carinthia turned Protestant and two abbots were declared deposed by Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria. The resurgence of St. Paul's began under Hieronymus Marchstaller, abbot from 1616. The derelict premises around the monastery church were rebuilt according to plans modelled on the Spanish Escorial. The reconstruction was completed under Marchstaller's successors until 1683. In 1782/87 Emperor Joseph II dissolved the monastery and nationalised its possessions, however, in 1809, under the Prince-Abbot Dr. Berthold Rottler, monks from St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest, which had also just been dissolved, moved into the premises. In 1940 the abbey was dissolved again by the National Socialists but the monks were able to return when it was reopened in 1947. Today it is the oldest operational monastery in Carinthia. From 1641 the abbey was a member of the Salzburg Congregation, which in 1930 was merged into the present Austrian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. Abbey church Within the abbey precinct there is a Romanesque basilica dating from the end of the 12th century. After a fire in 1367 a Gothic vaulted ceiling was added, painted with 44 frescoes by the Tyrolean masters Friedrich and Michael Pacher. The interior decoration of the church by the Styrian artist Philipp Jakob Straub dates from the 18th century. Beneath the Baroque high altar is a crypt, in which are the coffins of 13 members of the Habsburg family. Burials Siegfried I, Count of Sponheim Herman, Duke of Carinthia Bernhard von Spanheim Leopold III, Duke of Austria See also St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal was recently selected as the main motif of a very high value collectors' coin: the Austrian St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal commemorative coin, minted on October 10, 2007. The obverse displays a view of the abbey buildings nestling on the wooded hill above the town while the reverse shows the South Portal of the church;