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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Odilienberg

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ODILIENBERG, or Ottilienberg (called Allitona in the 8th century), a peak of the Vosges Mountains in Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, immediately W. of the town of Barr. Its crest (2500 ft.) is surmounted by the ruins of the ancient Roman wall, the Heidenmauer, and by the convent and church of St Odilia, or Ottilia, the patron saint of Alsace, whose remains rest within. It is thus the object of frequent pilgrimages. The convent is said to have been founded by Duke Eticho I., in honour of his daughter St Odilia, about the end of the 7th century, and it is certain that it existed at the time of Charlemagne. Destroyed during the wars of the middle ages, it was rebuilt by the Premonstrants at the beginning of the 17th century, and was acquired later by the bishop of Strassburg, who restored the building and the adjoining church, in 1853. Since 1899 the convent has contained a museum of antiquities.

See Reinhard, Le Mont Ste Odile (Strassburg, 1888); Pfister, Le Duché mérovingien d'Alsace et la légende de Sainte Odile (Nancy, 1892); and R. Forrer, Der Odilienberg (Strassburg, 1899).