The Fischbacher Alps are a gentle, elongated mountain range rich in forests and alpine pastures with a low mountain range character . The area is bordered in the north by the industrial Upper Styrian Mürztal and in the south by the tourist and agricultural dominated Joglland. According to legend, Empress Maria Theresa once wandered through eastern Styria and asked locals for their name. "I am da Jogl," it usually came back. Many men at that time were named after the patron saint of pilgrims, St. James. Thereupon, the empress is said to have called out with a laugh, "This magnificent landscape is pure Joglland!"
The Pretul , whose name is probably of Slavic origin and means something like border mountain, served after World War II as a smuggler's crossing to bring the agricultural products of Joglland to the bombed-out industrial towns of the Mürztal.
Not far from the Rosegger Schutzhaus, the Peter Bergner Warte commemorates the former innkeeper of the hut, who was the victim of a robbery-murder. The house itself, built in 1900 on the initiative of Toni Schruf, is named after the great Styrian regional poet Peter Rosegger.
When in 1529 the Turks advanced over the Semmering into the Mürztal, a horde is said to have advanced over Krieglach following the Alpsteig also against St. Kathrein am Hauenstein. The inhabitants, who were informed of the enemy's advance in good time by fire signals from the mountains, built a mighty stone rampart on the top of the pass, which is still called the "Turks' Redoubt" today. There the Turks were stopped abruptly, seeing only a large wide "sea" (the fog-shrouded Mürztal) in front of them. Saint Catherine from the Hauenstein parish church had rushed to the aid of the pious inhabitants and blinded the Turks, who took flight. Even today, at this place, a stone is said to show two depressions, supposedly the footprints of the saints.