The name “Saint-Odile” means “the mountain of the saint Odile” in French. The history of the mountain is as tragic as beautiful. There is a sacred abbey on the top of 764 m where passion took a place all Alsace knew about.

Location of the sight. What it is?

It is located on the mountain in the Vosges (Low Rhine). It is a place for piligrimming, marked on the touristic map feature and just a village which submits with its view from the first look. The abbey – is not a single “ice” of the mountain. There is a called “heathen wall”. It is a building 10 km length which consists of 300 thousand of stone blocks.

A story of a miserable girl Odile and the beginning of the big abbey

Mont Sainte-Odile Mont Sainte-Odile

The protectress Alsace was born blind. When father held the baby, he raged and tried to kill it. Her mother begged for mercy. Lead with anger, the head of the family demanded to give the child to the abbey. The babysitters took the baby to the dark apartments and the day of baptizing she got her eyes back. Due to this miracle the girl got the name of Odile which means “the child of light”.

The girl got back to her parents, but even there it wasn’t easy. Duke-father dreamt of marrying the girl for the rich prince to gain the part of lands and increase his wealth of his own. But Odile did not want to dedicate her to the secular life so she ran way. Dazed by her braveness and determination, the duke sent her the Honenburg castle as a gift which was on the top of the mountain. The latter became the abbey.

And what is it like today?

All her life the girl tried to make wonders to help the ones that needed. Her death turned the counties to the grief and sorrow. The sarcophagus of the saint is situated in devoted to her chantry and every tourist if he wants to may ask a question to the soul of the pilgrim and the get the answer he needs.

But the tourists come there not to go pigrimming there. There opens a view from the mountain to the most attractive and amazing views: clouded with the soft mist the vale of Alsace, sore with the story Strasbourg and the mysterious Black forest. All of remains the print indelible impressions making you remember the nature panoramas over and over again. Again and again. Diving into the light grief and thoughts of life enjoying the endless silence wallowing in details of every second spent there.