Wachau
southeast bank of the Danube
Dairy
The castle and monastery settlement lies south-east below the original castle built on a high rocky plateau on the Melk and Danube.
The Benedictine monastery dominates the city due to its location and dimensions and also had manorial rights over the city.
The name medilica was first mentioned in a document in 831.
Due to its location on the Danube and on the old imperial road, Melk was an important trading center for salt, iron and wine and was the seat of a toll and customs office, as well as the center of numerous guilds.
The market square in Melk was built as a rectangular square in the 13th century. created.
Until the 14th century The urban structure that is still recognizable today was created within the former city wall. The buildings in the old town date back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The free-standing neo-Gothic town church was built in the 15th century. founded.
The history of the town of Melk with its historical sights such as the "Haus am Stein", the landscape pharmacy or the oldest post office in Austria are described on information boards on the town's buildings. The history of the city of Melk can be heard using the audio guide, which can be borrowed from the Wachau Info Center.
After the city fortifications were removed in the 19th century. the settlement area was expanded by the cottage district, city park and administration building. In 1898 Melk received city rights.
Visible from afar, the Freiherr von Birago barracks have existed opposite the Stiftsfelsen since 1913. From 1944 to 1945 there was a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp on this site, in which ball bearings were produced for Steyr Daimler Puch AG.
Schoenbuehel
Around 1100 the Schönbühel area was owned by the Passau bishopric.
The locality is a multi-street village at the foot of a castle, which was built on a steep rocky knoll above the Danube.
Along the winding road leading down from the castle, a loose development characterizes the townscape. In Schönbühel there was a large Jewish community with a synagogue until 1671.
From 1411 Schönbühel was owned by the Starhemberg family. Schönbühel was in the 16th and early 17 Century. among the Starhembergs as a center of Protestantism. They not only represented religious concerns, but also supported the goals of the corporate movement against the sovereigns who were striving for absolutism.
In the Battle of White Mountain near Prague (1620), during the "Thirty Years' War", the Protestant Bohemian army and Starhemberg were defeated by the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II.
Konrad Balthasar von Starhemberg converted to Catholicism in 1639. Since that time, the Starhembergers have acquired large estates, also in Bohemia and Hungary. They were made by Emperor Ferdinand III. in the Imperial Counts and in the 18th century. raised to the rank of imperial prince and honored with high offices.
Konrad Balthasar von Starhemberg founded a monastery near Schönbühel Castle in 1666 and handed it over to the Servite monks after eight years of construction.
The heyday of the Schönbüheler Servite monastery with pilgrimage church lasted until the Josephine monastery reform. In 1980 the Servite monastery in Schönbühel was dissolved.
Aggsbach village
The small row village of Aggsbach-Dorf is located on a flooded terrace at the foot of the castle hill. Residential buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries line the Donauuferstrasse.
There has been a hammer mill in Aggsbach Dorf since the 16th century. The forge was operated with water power, via a pond that was fed by the Wolfsteinbach.
The smithy in Aggsbach-Dorf paid tribute to the neighboring charterhouse. Owner Josef Pehn worked as the last blacksmith until 1956.
The hammer mill was restored to its original state and reopened in 2022 as a center for blacksmithing.
The Aggsteinerhof from the 17th/18th century is located north of the town on the banks of the Danube. century
Until 1991 there was a shipping pier and a post office. The adjoining building No. 14 from 1465 was originally a toll house and was later used as a forester's house.
St. Johann im Mauerthale
St. Johann im Mauerthale is a place of pilgrimage and crossing point for tow tractors.
The first church was built in 800 AD, in the 13th century. the church district was subordinated to the Salzburg monastery of St. Peter. The current building stock is from the first half of the 15th century.
There was a cemetery around the church, which was primarily intended for the dead from the remote Maria Langegg, Salzburg's regional court and administrative court since 1623.
A Roman watchtower, whose northern wall reaches up to the level of the church roof, is integrated into the branch church of St. Johannes integrated in St. Johann im Mauerthale.
A late Romanesque monumental painting from around 1240 can be seen in the interior of the church.
A large fresco of St. Christopher from the 16th century was painted on the outer wall facing the Danube. exposed.
St. Johann is a fountain sanctuary. The well cult combines old baptismal ceremonies with the worship of St. John, the blessed Albinus and his companion St. Rosalia.
Albinus was a pupil and later head of the recognized cathedral school in York. He was considered the greatest scholar of his time. In 781 Albinus met Charlemagne in Parma. Albinus became an influential advisor to Charlemagne on matters of state and church.
The fountain sanctuary next to the church, the baroque Johannesbrunnen, is surrounded by a quarry stone wall. Four columns surrounding the fountain support the bell-shaped shingle roof. In the past, the place of worship was very well attended on pilgrimage days, so that several clergymen were on church duty on these days.
Salzburg and the Arns villages
Since a donation in 860 by King Ludwig the German of 24 royal hooves to the archdiocese of Salzburg, the Arnsdörfer have been the dominion of the Salzburg prince-archbishops.
(Königshufe is a medieval field measure of cleared royal land, 1 Königshufe = 47,7 ha).
The estate in the Wachau on the right bank of the Danube refers to St. Johann im Mauerthale, Oberarnsdorf, Hofarnsdorf, Mitterarnsdorf and Bacharnsdorf. The name Arnsdorf goes back to Archbishop Arn(o), who was the first archbishop of the new archdiocese of Salzburg and abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter.
The parish church in Hofarnsdorf is dedicated to St. Dedicated to Rupert. Rupert was a Franconian aristocrat, Salzburg's founder and first abbot of St. Peter's Abbey.
The Diocese of Chiemsee, the Salzburg Cathedral Chapter, the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter, the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg, the Benedictine Abbey of Admont, the Augustinian Canons of Höglwörth, the Salzburg Citizens' Hospital of St. Blasius and the Church of the City of Salzburg-Mülln were equipped with wineries.
In addition to the Archdiocese of Salzburg, the Salzburg Cathedral Chapter had possessions with their own manorial rights. The parish in Hofarnsdorf was looked after by the Salzburg cathedral chapter.
The importance of the Salzburg properties lay in wine production. Mixed farming was typical of wine country, including farming, subsistence livestock and forestry. A mill in the Kupfertal belonged to the farm, and the last miller died in 1882.
The winegrowers were always better off than the farmers. Winegrowing was a special culture that required special knowledge, so the nobility and the church depended on the winegrowers. Since the winegrowers did not have to work with a hand robot, there were no uprisings in the Wachau wine-growing region at the time of the peasant wars.
The steward in Hofarnsdorf was the most important official of the prince archbishop. The Bergmeister was responsible for the viticulture itself. The grapes were processed in the harvest yards of the respective monasteries.
The manorial estates gave their wine country "stock" and was leased, for example, for the third bucket. The nurse was, as a sovereign official, responsible for the administration and collection of taxes, as well as the head of a nursing court. The high court was in Spitz on the Danube.
In 1623 Hanns Lorenz v. Kueffstain the district court in Langegg to Archbishop Paris v. Lodron. The district court in Langegg included the dominion of the Salzburg prince-archbishop, Aggsbach and up to the dominion of Schönbühel.
By taking over the district court, a corresponding prison was necessary, so five iron rings were attached in the dungeon of Hofarnsdorf 4.
The Salzburg wine was taken up the Danube by water to Linz under the supervision of a "seizure owner". From Linz to Salzburg, the goods were transported on by land in carts.
The wine that was not traded could be sold to the population in "Leutgebhäuser" inns.
As an employee of the church, the teacher was responsible for church services and the music during the service, which is why the schoolhouse in Hofansdorf was built next to the church. The children were trained at school primarily for tasks in the spirit of the church.
The Arnsdorf office also included the ferry rights, the transfer with the zille from Oberarnsdorf to Spitz. Since 1928, a cable ferry has replaced the Zille ride.
In 1803 the ecclesiastical principalities were secularized, the ecclesiastical manorial rule ended, the possessions were confiscated by the state property administration for the Cameralfond and later sold to private individuals. The rule of the Arnsdörfer remained with Salzburg until 1806, the prince-archbishop-Salzburg Meierhof in Hofarnsdorf was converted into a castle in the 19th century. newly built.
In 1848 the manorial rule ended with the liberation of the peasants and as a result political communities were formed.
Worth mentioning in Oberarnsdorf is the former reading courtyard of the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter in Salzburg, which was built in several phases from the 15th to the 18th century. Rupert, the former courthouse and a well-preserved part of a Roman castle in Bacharnsdorf.
rosette
In 985/91 Rossatz was first referred to as Rosseza, owned by the Benedictine monastery in Metten. As bailiffs of Metten Abbey, the Babenbergs had sovereignty over Rossatz.
They handed over the village with goods as a fief to the Dürnsteiner Kuenringer. After the Kuenringers, the Wallseer took over, followed by the knights Matthäus von Spaurm, Kirchberger from 1548, Geimann, the Counts of Lamberg from 1662, Mollart, Schönborn from 1768.
The Guts- und Waldgenossenschaft Rossatz took over the former dominions in 1859.
The parish of Rossatz, founded around 1300, was at the end of the 14th century. incorporated into the Benedictine monastery of Göttweig.
During the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, a Protestant church was built in Rossatzbach in 1599 but was never completed. There was a house for the Protestant preacher and a prayer room in Rossatz.
Evangelical services were celebrated outside at the “Evangeliwandl” above Ruhr village.
Viticulture has been the main occupation of the residents of Rossatz since the early Middle Ages. Numerous parishes and monasteries owned vineyards and reading farms in Rossatz.
From the 14th to the 19th century the location on the Danube was decisive for Rossatz for the settlement of some ship masters. The place had an old right of way and Rossatz was important as an overnight stop for travelers on the Danube.
Very beautiful medieval houses, former reading courtyards and the castle with a Renaissance courtyard determine the center of Rossatz.
Diocese of Passau in Mautern
Mautern was on an important trade route. Located on the Danube Limes and a Danube crossing, Mautern was important as a trading and customs post for salt and iron.
In 803, after Emperor Charlemagne had conquered the Avar Empire, the former Roman fort area was resettled and secured. The medieval city wall largely corresponded to the Roman fortifications. The right to exercise high jurisdiction was granted to the Mautern town judge from 1277.
From the 10th century, Mautern was under the diocese of Passau, with the administrative headquarters in the castle.
The Margaret Chapel was built on the remains of the Roman camp wall on the city wall in the south of the old town. The oldest parts date from the 9th/10th centuries. Century.
In 1083 Bishop Altmann von Passau incorporated the church into the Göttweig monastery. A new late Romanesque building was built around 1300. In 1571, the St. Anna Foundation set up the public hospital here. In the interior, in the choir room, the entire wall painting from around 1300 has been preserved in outline drawing.
Today's Nikolaihof, the oldest winery in Austria, came to the Passau Augustinian monastery of St. Nikola as a harvest farm in 1075. Here, too, components from the 15th century of today's building rest on the remains of the walls of the Roman fort Favianis.
The Mauterner Danube crossing was economically important for Mautern. With the right to bridge and the construction of a wooden bridge in 1463, Mautern lost its position on the Danube to the twin towns of Krems-Stein.
CASTLES
Strategic considerations were essential for the construction of a castle: to protect the borders, to ward off enemy attacks and as a place of refuge for the population in times of need.
Castles were built on both banks of the Danube to control shipping.
The castle has been the representative residence of a noble family since the High Middle Ages.
The defensiveness was now also aimed at domestic power struggles, such as in the case of Aggstein Castle in the dispute between the Kuenringer and the sovereign.
For the immediate surroundings, the importance of a castle was related to the person of the lord of the castle, his rank and his power. The castle was the center of justice. The court itself met in a public square outside the castle.
In the interest of the lord of the castle, peace and security were a prerequisite for successful agricultural and commercial activity, because this resulted in levies and taxes for his benefit.
Castle ruins of Dürnstein
The castle complex is strategically located high above the town of Dürnstein on a rocky cone that drops steeply to the Danube.
Azzo von Gobatsburg acquired the area around Dürnstein from Tegernsee Abbey, where his grandson Hadmar I von Kuenring built the hilltop castle in the 12th century. built. A defensive wall, as an extended city wall, connects the village with the castle.
The first mention of the place name Dürnstein goes back to the capture of King Richard the Lionheart at Dürnstein Castle, from December 21, 1192 to February 4, 1193. He was then sent to the German Emperor Heinrich VI. delivered. Part of the ransom that was paid to release the English king made it possible to expand the castle and town of Dürnstein in the 13th and 14th centuries.
In 1347 Dürnstein became a town, the town coat of arms was awarded by Emperor Friedrich III. more than 100 years later.
At the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1645, the Swedes conquered Dürnstein Castle and blew up the gate. The castle has not been inhabited since then and has fallen into disrepair.
Aggstein castle ruins
On a narrow ridge, a ledge in east-west direction, 300 meters above the right bank of the Danube, lies the built twin castle Aggstein. A 12 m high rocky outcrop is integrated on each of the two narrow sides, the eastern one is called Bürgl and the western Stein.
The current building stock of the castle ruins largely goes back to the time of reconstruction by Jörg Scheck vom Wald.
Jörg Scheck vom Wald was councilor and captain of Albrecht V of Habsburg. He was entrusted with the castle, commissioned to rebuild it after it had been destroyed by Frederick II in 1230 and in 1295 by Albrecht I. Jörg Scheck vom Wald received the toll right for ships sailing upstream, in return he was obliged to maintain the stairway along the Danube.
From Aggstein Castle, the view opens wide in both directions, so that the navigation on the Danube was secured. Every approaching ship could be reported by trumpet signals via two blowing houses on the Danube.
Duke Friedrich III. took over the castle in 1477. He employed tenants until Anna von Polheim, the widow of the last tenant, bought the castle in 1606. She had the "Mittelburg" extended and inherited the property to her cousin Otto Max von Abensberg-Traun. After that, the castle was neglected and gradually fell into disrepair. In 1930 the Seilern-Aspang family bought the castle ruins.
Castle ruins rear building
The Hinterhaus Castle was built to secure the trade route from the Danube through more northern areas to Bohemia, as a control post over the Danube valley and as an administrative base. Owned by the Niederaltaich monastery as a "castrum in monte", the castle was first mentioned in a document in 1243.
The Duchy of Bavaria took over Hinterhaus Castle until 1504. The Kuenringers became fiefs and transferred Hinterhaus as a "sub-fiefdom" to the knight Arnold von Spitz.
After that, Hinterhaus Castle and the Spitz estate were pledged to the Wallseer family and from 1385 to the Maissauer family.
In 1504, the Hinterhaus Castle came into the possession of the Duchy of Austria below the Enns. The castle fell into disrepair in the 16th century, but at the same time it served as a bulwark against the Ottomans, reinforced by the construction of two round towers. Due to the Napoleonic Wars in 1805 and 1809, the Hinterhaus Castle finally fell into disrepair. Since 1970 the ruins have been owned by the municipality of Spitz.
Baroque monasteries in the Wachau
Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the Wachau
Magnificent, baroque monastery complexes of the Benedictine Abbey of Melk and the Benedictine monastery of Göttweig shine from afar at the entrance and end of the Wachau, with the high baroque monastery of Canons of Dürnstein resting in between.
At the time of the Reformation, the Wachau was a center of Protestantism.
Messrs. Isack and Jakob Aspan, owners of the Förthof near Stein, were of great importance to Lutheranism for decades. On Sundays, hundreds of people from Krems Stein often came to Förthof for the sermons. Despite conflicts with Bishop Melchior Khlesl, Protestant services were held here until 1613. In 1624 the Förthof with the chapel came to the Canons of Dürnstein and, after its abolition in 1788, to the Herzogenburg Abbey.
In the cemetery in Spitz an der Donau there is still the "pastor's tower" with the pulpit from where Lutheran preachers proclaimed the word of God. The owners of the Spitz estate at the time, the Lords of Kirchberg and then the Kueffstainers, were supporters and supporters of Lutheranism. Hans Lorenz II. Kueffstain erected a Lutheran church in the Spitzer Castle. According to the religious concession granted to the estates (1568), he was entitled to do so. The situation changed under Emperor Ferdinand II. In 1620 the castle and church were set on fire, after which the whole town went up in flames. The Lutheran church in the castle was not rebuilt.
In Weißenkirchen, too, there were predominantly Protestants for more than half a century. It was said that there were no "worse Lutherans" in the whole country than in the Wachau.
On the other side of the Danube in Rossatz, Catholics and then Protestants dominated again. The Lutherans also met for services in the open air at the "Evangeliwandl" above the town of Rührsdorf.
In Schönbühel, the Starhembergs were decisive for Protestantism. Lutheran services took place in the 16th century. in the castle church in Schönbühel.
However, the community was re-catholicized after Konrad Balthasar Graf Starhemberg converted to Catholicism in 1639.
After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the overwhelming majority of the population in the Wachau is still Lutheran. In 30 it says "there is no Catholic in the council". Faith commissions re-catholicized the residents and Protestants had to leave the valley of Wachau.
Benedictine Abbey Melk
The monumental, baroque Benedictine Abbey of Melk, visible from afar, shines in rich yellow on a cliff that drops steeply to the north towards the river Melk and the Danube. As one of the most beautiful and largest unified baroque ensembles in Europe, it is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the second half of the 10th century, the emperor enfeoffed Leopold I of Babenberg with a narrow strip along the Danube, in the middle of which was the castle in Melk, a fortified settlement.
Melk served as the burial place of the Babenbergs and the burial place of St. Koloman, the country's first patron saint.
Margrave Leopold II had a monastery built on the rock above the village of Melk, into which Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey moved in 1089. The Babenberg castle fortress, as well as goods, parishes and the village of Melk, were transferred to Leopold III. to the Benedictines as landlords. In the 12th century a school was founded in the monastery area of Melk Abbey, which is now the oldest school in Austria.
After the majority of the nobility converted to Protestantism and the number of people entering the monastery fell sharply, the monastery was on the verge of dissolution in 1566. As a result, Melk was the regional center of the Counter-Reformation.
In 1700 Berthold Dietmayr was elected abbot of Melk Abbey. Berthold Dietmayr set himself the goal of strengthening and emphasizing the religious, political and spiritual importance of the monastery by building a baroque new building for Melk Abbey.
Jakob Prandtauer, an important baroque master builder, planned the new construction of the monastery complex in Melk. Melk Abbey, one of the most beautiful and largest unified Baroque ensembles in Europe, was inaugurated in 1746.
After secularization in 1848, Melk Abbey lost its landlordship. Compensation funds benefited the general renovation of the monastery.
In order to finance renovation work at the beginning of the 20th century, Melk Abbey sold, among other things, a very valuable Gutenberg Bible from the Abbey Library to Yale University in 1926.
The visit ends in the Abbey Park with a tour of Melk Abbey with a visit to the Imperial Wing, Marble Hall, Abbey Library, Abbey Church and the panoramic view from the balcony of the Danube Valley. The path leads through the revitalized baroque gardens to the baroque garden pavilion with Johann Wenzel Bergl's painted fantasy worlds.
Contemporary art installations, in the adjoining English landscape park,
complement and deepen the cultural experience of a visit to the monastery and connect with the present.
Benedictine monastery Göttweig the "Austrian Montecassino"
The baroque Benedictine monastery of Göttweig towers unmistakably at 422 m above sea level on the eastern edge of the Wachau, on a hill opposite the town of Krems. Göttweig Abbey is also called the "Austrian Montecassino" because of its mountain location.
Prehistoric finds on the Göttweiger Berg, from the Bronze and Iron Ages, testify to an early settlement. Until the 5th century there was a Roman settlement on the mountain and a road from Mautern/ Favianis to St. Pölten/ Aelium Cetium.
Bishop Altmann von Passau founded Göttweig Abbey in 1083. As a spiritual manor, the Benedictine monastery was also the center of power, administration and business. The Erentrudis chapel, the old castle, the crypt and the chancel of the church are buildings from the founding period.
The Göttweig Abbey, a heavily fortified monastery complex consisting of churches, chapels, residential and farm buildings, was significantly enlarged in the Middle Ages. During the Reformation, the Göttweig monastery was threatened by the decline of Catholicism. Counter-reforms revived monastic life.
A fire in 1718 destroyed a large part of the Göttweig monastery complex. In terms of floor plan, the baroque reconstruction was planned by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, based on the model of the monastery residence El Escorial.
Special sights in the monastery are the museum in the imperial wing, the imperial staircase with the ceiling fresco by Paul Troger from 1739, the princely and imperial rooms and the collegiate church with crypt and cloister.
During the Baroque period, the Göttweiger Abbey Library was one of the most outstanding libraries in the German-speaking world. An important music collection in the library of Göttweig Abbey deserves special mention.
Canons of Dürnstein and the sky-blue tower
The origin of the Dürnstein monastery building was a Marienkapelle donated by Elsbeth von Kuenring in 1372.
In 1410, Otto von Maissau expanded the building to include a monastery, which he handed over to the Augustinian canons from Wittingau in Bohemia.
In the course of the 15th century, the complex was expanded to include a church and cloister.
The current appearance of Dürnstein Abbey goes back to Probst Hieronymus Übelbacher.
He was well educated and interested in art and science. With prudent economic management, he organized the baroque renovation of the monastery, taking into account the Gothic monastery complex. Joseph Munggenast was the head construction manager, and Jakob Prandtauer designed the entrance portal and the monastery courtyard.
The building of Dürnstein Abbey is earthy ocher and mustard yellow, the church tower, dated 1773, is blue and white. During the restoration from 1985-2019, invoices for smalt-blue dyes (potassium silicate glass colored blue with cobalt(II) oxide) were found in the monastery archive.
Since it was assumed that the tower of the Dürnstein collegiate church was colored with the pigment from powdered cobalt glass at the time of construction, it was renovated in this way. Today, the tower of Dürnstein Abbey shines sky-blue as a symbol of the Wachau.
The Canons of Dürnstein was abolished in 1788 and handed over to the Augustinian Canons of Herzogenburg.
Schönbühel Castle and the Servite Monastery
Schönbühel Castle on a spur, 36m above the Danube at the entrance to the Wachau, together with the Servitenkloster, visible from afar, forms a highlight of landscape-related building in the Danube landscape. The area of the castle complex was already inhabited in the Bronze Age and then by the Romans.
Beginning of the 9th century Schönbühel was owned by the diocese of Passau. In 1396 the “castrum Schoenpuhel” came into the hands of the Counts of Starhemberg until 1819. The castle above the two rocks in the Danube, popularly known as "Kuh and Kalbl", received its present form in the 19th century.
Since 1927, the castle estate has been owned by the Counts of Seilern-Aspang. The entire palace complex is privately owned and not open to the public.
In the 16th century, Schönbühel was the center of the Reformation under the Counts of Starhemberg. After converting to Catholicism in 1639, Konrad Balthasar von Starhemberg founded a Servite monastery above the walls of a ruined Donauwarte.
A tomb of Christ chapel was built in the choir area of the monastery church of St. Rosalia and in the crypt a unique replica of the Grotto of the Nativity of Bethlehem. Cave systems like this birth grotto resemble the dwellings of early residents of Bethlehem.
The heyday of the monastery with the pilgrimage church lasted until the Josephine monastery reform.
A shortage of priests and the loss of foundations due to secularization brought the monastery into difficulties. Church and monastery buildings were neglected and fell into disrepair. In 1980 the last priests left the monastery. The monastery buildings were returned to Schönbühel Castle in accordance with the foundation agreement.
Aggsbach Charterhouse
Heidenreich von Maissau and his wife Anna from the Kuenringer family donated the Aggsbach Charterhouse in 1380.
The entrance to the monastery was further west at the large gate tower.
Carthusian churches had no steeple and neither pulpit nor organ, because as with the early Franciscans and Trappists the praise of God had to be sung by the monks in Carthusian churches.
In the 16th century only three monks lived in the monastery and as a result the buildings fell into disrepair. Around 1600 the monastery complex was restored in the Renaissance style and the church in the 17th century. renovated.
Emperor Josef II abolished the monastery in 1782, the estate was sold and the monastery was converted into a palace. The treasures of the monastery later came to Herzogenburg: a Gothic altar from 1450, the Aggsbach high altar by Jörg Breu the Elder. 1501, a wooden sculpture, the Michael altar from 1500 and a wooden shrine.
The museum and the meditation garden, a work by the artist Marianne Maderna, aim to bring visitors closer to the spiritual wealth of the Carthusians.
Tourism in the Wachau - from summer resorts to summer holidays
A summer holiday in the Wachau offers many opportunities to experience the Wachau in an active and relaxed way. With the ship from Krems to Melk on the Danube and back with the romantic Wachaubahn, you can experience the Wachau in a very special way. Or cycle along the Danube Cycle Path along the unique river landscape. A variety of hikes are available on the World Heritage Trail, in a protected landscape with great vantage points over the Danube valley. A swim in the Danube guarantees refreshment on hot summer days. Medieval towns, castles, monasteries and palaces as well as museums offer guests interested in culture knowledge and stimulating experiences.
Court society used to retreat to their country estates during the hot summer months. Imitating this society, the "summer resort" developed into a separate branch of industry in some places around 1800.
This is how the Wachau was discovered as an excursion and holiday destination. The charm of the "old days" and the unique landscape have particularly attracted artists.
The stay in the country was a matter of financial prestige, a social obligation. It served health, was an interruption of everyday life, or an enthusiastic longing for the country. The aristocracy and the upper classes lived a sophisticated life in their vacation homes and grand hotels.
The summer visitors chose a vacation spot that they visited again and again. From June to September, for up to 3 months, with large luggage and servants, the whole family spent the summer in the summer resort, sometimes without fathers who had to go on with the business.
Due to the legal regulation of leisure time and holiday entitlement of the working population, it was towards the end of the 19th century. also possible for privileged petit bourgeois or members of the working class to travel.
The “little people” lived in private quarters. The adult male family members only drove to the summer resort in the evenings or on Sundays and brought provisions for the family with them.
In the interwar period, the legendary “Busserlzug” ran every Saturday afternoon from Vienna's Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof to the Kamptal, for example.
He stopped at all stations. Women and children were waiting on the platforms for the fathers arriving from the big city.
After the First World War, the general economic distress and food shortages were great, so feeding the local population was a priority. Resentment towards strangers was the order of the day.
After the end of the war, hyperinflation set in and the rate on the foreign exchange markets plummeted. This is how Austria became one of the cheapest holiday destinations for foreign guests. There was a visa requirement in Europe in the XNUMXs, through which many states shielded themselves.
This was rescinded between the German Reich and Austria in 1925.
The tourism of our days emerged from the summer resort. Bathing in lakes, in the river, hiking and mountaineering and additional entertainment such as theatre, music events and traditionally recurring customs festivals are offered to summer guests today.
costume and customs
The Wachau festival costume is in the Biedermeier period at the beginning of the 19th century. developed. It is traditionally worn on festive occasions and traditional events.
The festive costume for women consists of a wide, long skirt with a spenser-like bodice and puffy sleeves, made of small or patterned brocade fabrics. The neck insert is pleated. A silk apron is tied over the skirt.
The Wachau gold bonnet and buckled shoes complement the festive costume. As a precious handwork made of brocade, silk and gold lace, the Wachau gold hood was a status symbol for privileged middle-class women.
Women from the Wachau wear a blue-print dirndl made of cotton as their everyday costume. The fabric is white with a small pattern on a blue background and is complemented with a white dirndl blouse and a plain dark blue apron.
The festive costume for men consists of black knee breeches, white socks and a velvet or silk brocade gilet vest worn over a white shirt. A long frock coat in different colors is pulled over it. A traditional handkerchief tied with a tie, black buckled shoes and a black hat with stone feather grass (stone feather grass is protected, it grows on dry grass in the Wachau) complete the festive costume.
An essential part of the men's everyday costume is the traditional, very robust Kalmuck jacket in the typical black, brown and white checked pattern. It is worn with black pants, white cotton shirt and black hat with stonefeather plume.
Jackets made of Kalmuck fabric were the working clothes of the sailors on the Danube. With the end of traditional rafting, this robust jacket was adopted by the Wachau winegrowers.
Solstice celebration, from sun cult to atmospheric festival
On June 21, the highest point of the sun combined with the shortest night can be experienced in places of the northern tropic. From this day on, the daylight hours are shortened.
The sun was associated with the masculine principle in Western cultures and with the feminine principle in Germanic-speaking countries.
The summer solstice, the festival of light and fire, the beginning of summer, is a high point in the course of the year. The worship of the sun and the returning light, with the importance of the sun for earthly survival, goes back to prehistoric traditions. The fire is said to increase the power of the sun, the cleansing effect of the fire is said to keep evil spirits away from people and animals and ward off storms.
In pre-Christian Central Europe it was a festival of fertility, and a bounty was also asked for. The largest midsummer celebrations in Europe take place in Stonehenge every year.
Since Christianization, the summer solstice celebration has also been combined with the feast day in honor of Saint John the Baptist, St. John's Day.
From the end of the 17th century, large numbers of midsummer celebrations are documented, with particularly extensive celebrations in the Wachau and in the Nibelungengau.
Since the solstice celebrations were often the cause of serious fires and for the enlighteners "unnecessary superstition", there was a general ban in 1754. Only in the second half of the 19th century was the solstice celebrated again as a folk festival.
Travel reports by writers and journalists made the midsummer celebrations in the Wachau internationally known at the time. At that time, the visitors were impressed by the glow of thousands of small candle lights floating on the Danube.
Every year around June 21st, the Danube region Wachau, Nibelungengau, Kremstal is characterized by magnificent midsummer celebrations. Thousands of visitors are already looking for places along the Danube during the day in order to experience the spectacle of burning piles of wood along both banks of the river and the surrounding hills and large colorful fireworks at the onset of darkness.
In Spitz, more than 3.000 torches are placed and lit every year on the Spitz wine terraces and next to the Danube.
Fireworks are ignited at the ferry in Weißenkirchen and the ferry in Arnsdorf. The traditional fire waterfall flows impressively from the Hinterhaus ruins.
Fireworks will follow in Rossatzbach and Dürnstein, which you can experience particularly well from the ship at nightfall.
Numerous shipping companies offer trips for this night as part of the solstice celebrations in the Wachau and in the Nibelungengau.