Mont-Ste-Odile

Mont-Ste-Odile Review

Mont-Ste-Odile, a 2,500-foot hill, has been an important religious and military site for 3,000 years. The eerie 9½-km-long (6-mi-long) Mur Païen wall, up to 12 feet high and, in parts, several feet thick, rings the summit; its mysterious origins and purpose still baffle archaeologists. The Romans established a settlement here and, at the start of the eighth century, Odile—the patron saint of Alsace, who had been born blind—founded a convent on the same spot after receiving her sight while being baptized. The relatively modern convent is now a workaday hostelry for modern pilgrims on group retreats. Odile died here in AD 720; her sarcophagus rests in the 12th-century Chapelle Ste-Odile. The spare, Romanesque Chapelle de la Croix adjoins Ste-Odile. Various regional bus lines can connect you with Mont-St-Odile.