Some 34km/21mi southwest of Vienna, not far from Mödling on the edge of the Vienna Forest (Wiener Wald), lies the little town of Heiligenkreuz ("Holy Cross"), with Austria's second oldest Cistercian abbey. It takes its name from the relic of the True Cross which was presented to the monks by an Austrian duke. The abbey was founded in 1133, under
the influence of French Cistercian monks. The church itself dates from the 12th and 13th C. The last of the Babenbergers died in 1246 and, in common with many others of the line, was buried in Heiligenkreuz. The convent buildings were reconstructed in the 17th and 18th C., when a new courtyard with two story arcades and a gatehouse tower were added.
The prettiest route from Vienna to Heligenkreuz goes through the village of Perchtoldsdorf with Trinity Pillar by J. B. Fischer von Erlach on the Main square, the friendly little town of Mödling and through the Hinterbrühl Valley (with an underground grotto by the lake and the historic Höldrichsmühle Inn).
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