Heiligenblut is one of the highest located Alpine villages, and the starting point for a walk to Austrias biggest mountain “Grossglockner”.
The village of 1.200 inhabitants is also the start and end of the Grossglockner Highway Alpine Road.
The name of the village comes from a legend according to a little bottle with the blood of Jesus Christ, which a Danish guy called Briccius (lat. Friedrich), put inside his calf, to save it from robbers. In the year 914 the Danish guy was on his way from Konstantinobel, and died here in Heiligenblut under an avalanche. When some farmers wanted to bury him, one leg was obstinate and don’t wanted to come under earth. When they took a closer look on the leg, they have seen the little bottle sticking in the calf. The bottle is kept until today in the sacrament house which was built between 1460 and 1491.
