Heiligenkreuz Monastery in Heiligenkreuz, Lower Austria

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Coordinates: 48.05495, 16.13136
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Founded in 1133, by Margrave St. Leopold III of Austria, the Cistercian abbey of the Holy Cross is the oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world. On 31 May 1188, Leopold V of Austria presented the abbey with a relic of the True Cross, which is still to be seen and since 1983, is exhibited in the chapel of the Holy Cross. This relic was a present from Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, King of Jerusalem to Duke Leopold V in 1182.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the abbey was often endangered by epidemics, floods, and fires, and suffered severely during the Turkish wars of 1529 and 1683. In the latter, the Turkish hordes burnt down much of the abbey precinct, which was rebuilt on a larger scale in the Baroque style. Heiligenkreuz was spared dissolution under Emperor Joseph II. Although the National Socialists planned its dissolution in the Third Reich, this plan was not carried out.