Heiligenkreuz

Geschichte

Heiligenkreuz is a municipality in the district of Baden, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is known for the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, the associated papal college Benedict XVI and the Catholic Leopoldinum seminary.GeographyThe municipality is located within the Vienna Woods (Wienerwald) mountain range in the southwest of the Austrian capital Vienna. It is part of the Lower Austrian Industrieviertel region. Heiligenkreuz is a stop on the old Via Sacra from Vienna to Mariazell in Styria. The local economy largely depends on tourism and forestry.The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Heiligenkreuz and Siegenfeld. In the southeast it borders on the district capital Baden.HistoryThe village of Siegenfeld in the March of Austria possibly arose around 1040. In 1133 the Babenberg margrave Leopold III established the Heiligenkreuz monastery in the sparsely settled area. Another nearby village, mentioned as Muchersdorf in a 1136 deed, later became abandoned.