Rotes Kreuz, Oberlaa

The Rote Kreuz stands at the edge of Oberlaa and Unterlaa in Vienna’s 10th district, beside a railway embankment where the Donauländebahn passes over a field track. It marks a spot where Leopold Knabl, a local farmer, once fell from his wagon and nearly died. A simple wooden cross painted red, it carries a small tin-roofed shelter above the crossbeam and a candle lantern below. The white iron figure of Christ was added in 2012, replacing an earlier painted tin image.

The site is tied to an old Austrian custom of raising a ‘red cross’ where blood was spilled. A legend tells how a thief tried to steal the cross, cut himself on a rusty nail, and later died of blood poisoning. Every 25 April the annual Markus procession winds from Oberlaa church past the Kuhtrift, the Schmerber-Kreuz, the Rote Kreuz, and the Pietà chapel before returning.

Visitors walk a quiet country lane to reach the cross, where the Liesingbach trickles nearby. The Sebastianbildstock stands a little way off on the southern side of the railway embankment. The whole place is listed in Vienna’s digital cultural register, a modest but recognised landmark.