Mont Sainte-Odile

Mont Sainte-Odile (German: Odilienberg or Ottilienberg; called Allitona in the 8th century) is a 760-metre-high peak in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace in France, immediately west of Barr. The mountain is named after Saint Odile. It has a monastery/convent at its top called the Hohenburg Abbey, and is notable also for its stone fortifications called "the Pagan Wall." In 1992, it was the site of an Airbus crash.

The mountain and its surroundings contain evidence of Celtic settlements. The mountain enters recorded history during the Roman times; a fortress was supposedly destroyed by the Vandals in 407. In the second half of the 9th century, when Vikings attacked the Low Countries, which had been recently converted to Christianity and were governed from Utrecht, the Utrecht bishops went into exile and stayed for a while in Mont Sainte-Odile.

At least since the 19th century, its beauty has been celebrated and the mountain, with convent and pagan wall, is often included in tourist guides, incl. Baedeker's.

The convent is said to have been founded by Adalrich, Duke of Alsace, in honor of his daughter, Saint Odile, about the end of the 7th century, and it is certain that it existed at the time of Charlemagne. Destroyed during the Middle Ages, it was rebuilt by Premonstratensians at the beginning of the 17th century. It was acquired later by the bishop of Strasbourg, who restored the building and the adjoining church in 1853.

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Wikipedia