The monastery was founded in 1133 by
Margrave St. Leopold III of Austria, at the request of his son
Otto, soon to be abbot of the Cistercian monastery of
Morimond in
Burgundy and afterwards
Bishop of Freising. Its first twelve monks together with their abbot, Gottschalk, came from Morimond at the request of Leopold III. The date of consecration was 11 September 1133. They called their abbey
Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) as a sign of their devotion to
redemption by the Cross. 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. Heiligenkreuz was richly endowed by the founder's family, the Babenberg dynasty, and was active in the foundation of many daughter-houses. The following Cistercian monasteries were founded by Heiligenkreuz: •
Zwettl Abbey in Lower Austria in 1138 (still extant); • Czikador in Hungary in 1142 (dissolved in 1526); • Baumgartenberg in Upper Austria in 1142 (dissolved in 1784); • Marienberg in what is today
Burgenland in 1194 (dissolved in 1526); •
Lilienfeld Abbey in Lower Austria in 1206 (still extant); • Sancta Corona, known in Czech as
Zlatá Koruna, in Bohemia in 1263 (dissolved in 1785); • Neuberg in Styria in 1327 (dissolved in 1785). • More recently, in 1988, Heiligenkreuz founded
Stiepel Priory at
Bochum-Stiepel in the
Ruhrgebiet. • Furthermore, in the 1990s the monastery gave substantial support for re-founding
Vyšší Brod Monastery in the Czech Republic. During the 15th and 16th centuries the abbey was often endangered by epidemics, floods, and fires. It suffered severely during the
Turkish wars of
1529 and
1683. In the latter, Turkish soldiers burnt down much of the abbey precinct, which was rebuilt on a larger scale in the
Baroque style under Abbot Klemens Schäfer. Heiligenkreuz abbots were often noted for their piety and learning. In 1734 the Abbey of St. Gotthard in
Hungary was ceded to Heiligenkreuz by
Emperor Charles VI. In the late 1800s, it was united with the Hungarian
Zirc Abbey. The
monastery of Neukloster at
Wiener-Neustadt was joined to Heiligenkreuz in 1881. 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. Abbot Karl Braunstorfer of Heiligenkreuz was a Council Father at the
Second Vatican Council. The abbey has been an important Austrian centre for music for more than 800 years. Many manuscripts have been found at this monastery, most notably those of
Alberich Mazak (1609–1661). Today it is also popularly known for a 2008 recording of
Gregorian chant:
"Chant: Music For Paradise". Other recordings followed. ==Abbey and church==