Mountain Grossglockner - Ski Resort
Heiligenblut safely tucked away in a remote valley in
the far north-west of Carinthia, in the heart of the
Austrian Hohe Tauern National Park. Heiligenblut
(meaning holy blood) is a municipality in the district
of Spittal an der Drau in the Austrian state of
Carinthia. Situated in the high-Alpine region of the
Hohe Tauern mountain range at 1,288 meters, Heiligenblut
is located at the foot of the Großglockner, the highest
mountain in Austria, and the Pasterze Glacier. It is
also the southern starting point of the scenic
Großglockner Hochalpenstraße to Bruck in Salzburg, the
continuation of the highway B107 from Lienz in East
Tyrol. The municipality of Heiligenblut includes the
Katastralgemeinden of Apriach, Hof, Rojach and Zlapp.
Heiligenblut and GroßglocknerThe Gothic pilgrimage
church of Saint Vinzenz, with its needle spire, was
built between 1460-1491 and contains a relic of Christ’s
Holy Blood. According to legend the relic, which is kept
in a sacrament house, was brought here in 914 from
Constantinople by the Danish knight Briccius. On his way
home he was buried by an avalanche and his corpse was
found where three ears of wheat broke through the snow
(see the coat of arms). The church also houses a
late-Gothic winged altarpiece from 1520, and a crypt and
tomb containing the remains of Briccius. Once a gold
mining area from ancient history to the Middle Ages,
Heiligenblut nowadays chiefly is a tourism and
mountaineering resort. Nearby attractions include the
Heiligenblut-Roßbach-Schareck cable car (2,606 m), an
open-air museum, the Stockmühlen mills in Apriach with
nine flume mills, Lake Kachelsee to the west, the Möll
waterfalls, the Gößnitz waterfalls, the Leiter
waterfalls, the Margaritzen reservoir, and Lake
Sandersee. The construction of the nearby railway tunnel
to the Fleißalm mountain area (1,798 m) is unique in
Europe. The 1.6-kilometer long tunnel is filled with
water during the summer but serves as a railway tunnel
leading to the Fleißalm winter sports region in winter.
Carinthia - is the southernmost Austrian state or Land.
Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for
its mountains and lakes. The main language is German.
Its regional dialects belong to the Southern
Austro-Bavarian group. Carinthia's main industries are
tourism, electronics, engineering, forestry and
agriculture. The multinational corporations Philips and
Siemens have large operations there. |