Study at ITI · Campus Life
A castle, a community, a home.
ITI lives in Schloss Trumau, a castle south of Vienna — students and families from over twenty nations, one shared life of study, prayer, and friendship.
The Castle
Nine centuries old, and full of students.
The main building of Schloss Trumau dates to 1138, on land once deeded to Heiligenkreuz Abbey by Duke Leopold IV. For centuries it belonged to the Cistercians; today its vaulted rooms hold seminars, a library, and a chapel.
Lectures under baroque ceilings, feasts under the great plane tree in the courtyard, evening light on the tower — the castle is not a backdrop. It is where everything happens.
From Above
The same towers, 350 years later.
Seen from the air, the Schloss still matches its 17th-century engraving — the towers, the courtyard, the park. What changed is the life inside: a university community that fills it from morning prayer to late-night conversations.
A Day in Trumau
Seminar, chapel, kitchen, courtyard.
The day has a shape here: seminars in the morning, Mass at noon, reading in the park, cooking together in the evening. When the weather is good, class simply moves outside.
Families Belong Here
Children in the courtyard are part of the curriculum.
ITI was founded with families in mind. About one in seven students is married; spouses and children live on campus, in family apartments beside the student residences. Children ride tricycles in the courtyard while their parents read Aquinas.
Families and single students share Sunday potluck brunches, feasts, and daily Mass. For many, this is the first place where they see student life and family life belong together — and it changes what they hope for.
Since the Beginning
A founding blessing.
When Pope St. John Paul II founded ITI in 1996, he entrusted it to families as much as to scholars. This photograph — the founding Waldstein family with the Pope — hangs in the story of the house: a university blessed, from its first day, for the whole of life.
One Community
Twenty-two nations, one faith.
Students come from across the world — from the United States to Slovakia, from Austria to China. With so many countries, cultures, and rites in one castle, it is the shared faith that gives the community its unity.
Mountains, Vienna, Europe
Trumau is small. Its doorstep is not.
The parish, the shops, and the train station are a short walk away; Vienna is about twenty kilometres north. On free days, students hike the Schneeberg, sing in the Wachau, or take the train to the opera.
Housing
Everyone lives here. That is the point.
Single students live in residences on the campus complex, with shared kitchens where people gather to cook, eat, and talk late. Families have their own apartments a courtyard away. Seminarians and priests live in their own quarters.
Residential life is not an add-on to the education — it is half of it. The conversation that starts in the seminar continues in the kitchen.
All Seasons
Winter belongs to the community too.
Advent wreaths in the kitchens, snow on the courtyard, the chapel warm and full. The academic year runs through all four seasons, and so does the life around it.
Visit ITI in Trumau
Come and see.
Walk the allee, eat at the long tables, meet the families and the students. One visit tells you more than any website — come to Trumau and see whether this is your place.