HEILIGENKREUZ. - A Cistercian abbey in Lower Austria, in the diocese of Vienna; since 1880 it has been united with the abbey of Neukloster, at Wiener-Neustadt (founded in 1444). It has the care of 22 incorporated parishes and a celebrated theological school.
H. is the oldest Cistercian abbey in Austria, a direct daughter of Morimond, founded on 11 September 1135 by Duke Leopoldo III, the Saint, with the intervention of Ottone, bishop of Frisinga, his son. H. gave rise to a great host of abbeys in central and eastern Europe. The architecture of the church also exerted a broad influence on the Cistercian style; the place, originally called
“Am Sattelbach,” or “in valle nemorosa,” received its present name when Leopoldo VI placed there one of the largest fragments of the Holy Cross, personally obtained by him at the capture of Jerusalem (1187). The church still preserves, in its three aisles with rib vaulting, the structure of 1160; the Gothic choir dates from 1294. It has a large Romanesque cloister, with stained-glass windows of the period; famous are the three-aisled dormitory, dating from 1200, and the chapel, originally in the form of a Greek cross, for the Holy Cross, later remodelled. The convent was largely rebuilt in the Baroque period. The
museum contains many valuable works of art.