HEILIGENKREUZ. – A Cistercian abbey in Lower Austria, in the diocese of Vienna; since 1880 it has incorporated the abbey of Neukloster at Wiener-Neustadt (founded in 1444). It has charge of 22 parishes in corporate form and a renowned school of theology.
H. is the oldest Cistercian abbey in Austria, a direct daughter of Morimond, founded on 11 September 1135 by Duke Leopold III, the Saint, with the intervention of Otto, Bishop of Freising, his son. H. gave rise to a great host of abbeys in central and eastern Europe. The architecture of the church also exercised a wide influence on the Cistercian style. The place originally called “Am Sattelbach” or “in valle nemorosa” received its present name when Leopold VI placed there one of the largest relics of the Holy Cross, which he had personally obtained at the capture of Jerusalem (1187). The church still preserves, in its three naves with ribbed vaulting, the structure of 1160; the Gothic choir dates from 1294. It has a large Romanesque cloister with contemporary stained glass; famous is the three-aisled dormitory of 1200 and the chapel, originally in the form of a Greek cross, for the Holy Cross, later remodeled. The convent was largely rebuilt in the Baroque period. The museum contains many choice works of art.