Heiligenkreuz Attractions
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).
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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Heiligenkreuz Monastery
This monastery, the second Cistercian abbey built in the country, dates back to the 12th Century. It is extensively decorated and houses a library containing ancient manuscripts.
Schloss Mayerling
About 6km/4mi southwest of Heiligenkreuz stands Schloss Mayerling, now a Carmelite convent, on the site of an earlier hunting lodge belonging to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, where on January 1 1889 the Crown Prince and his mistress Maria Vetsera took their own lives, in circumstances which have never been fully explained. The Crown Prince is buried in the Capuchin vault; his room was later made into a chapel.
