Stage 08 From Glacier to Wine North Route Lassing - Admont

Characteristics

Skill

Fitness

The tour in numbers

Level of difficulty easy

Route 22,4 km

Time 6:00 h

Uphill 240 hm

Downhill 380 hm

Highest point 841 m

In the face of Strechau Castle, this tour takes us to Admont with its famous monastery, which houses the largest monastery library in the world. This stage of the From Glacier to Wine hiking route is characterized on the one hand by low altitude differences, but on the other hand by a long trail length of about 23 km. The Palten and the Enns accompany us on this tour through the valley floors of the two rivers.

With Strechau Castle, which can be visited during guided tours at 10:00 and 15:00, and Admont Monastery at the end of the tour, two cultural jewels of Austria are our companions on this stage of the From Glacier to Wine hiking route. Strechau Castle, which towers over the town of Rottenmann, is a partly Romanesque, partly Gothic fortification and was rebuilt into a Renaissance castle in the mid-16th century under the Hoffmann family, leaders of the Styrian Protestant estates. However, the castle also houses a vintage car collection of the Boesch Private Foundation that is well worth seeing.

Admont Monastery at the end of the stage, in turn, has shaped spiritual, cultural and economic life in the Gesäuse for more than 900 years, and since 2002 it has been allowed to call itself Austria's youngest national park. The monastery is the oldest existing in Styria and the first neo-Gothic sacral building in Austria. The world's largest monastery library and the contrasting museum landscape immerse us in a world that stretches from the Baroque to the present.

Best season

January

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More information

There are numerous parking spaces available in Lassing.

From Lassing, the path first goes west through a romantic landscape with meadows and forests towards Strechau Castle, where we keep straight on at the castle ramp to continue at the foot of the castle in the direction of Selzthal. If time permits, a visit to Strechau Castle is of course highly recommended (Tel. +43 650 2348461). From Selzthal there are train connections to Graz, Vienna, Linz or Salzburg and also to the neighboring countries. To get to Selzthal we walk around the castle Strechau. Near the highway we branch off from the hiking trail with the number 12 and walk between the buildings of the Deisl company. Then we pass through an underpass (be careful, we are walking on a state road!) to continue on the state road to Selzthal. We leave the town of Selzthal, an important railroad and bicycle junction in Upper Styria, and walk a short distance parallel to the railroad line to soon reach the Enns, which will now be our constant companion on this stage of the hiking route "From Glacier to Wine" until we reach Admont, our destination. Here, where the Palten flows into the Enns, on the other side of the river is the Pürgschachen Moor, a Natura 2000 European protected area, through which a beautifully laid out circular trail suitable for strollers also leads. The Pürgschachen Moor and the wetlands near the river Enns form a unique complex of raised bogs and silting lake areas between Ardning and the Gesäuse entrance to Admont with an original total size of 110 ha. The central area, the Pürgschachener Latschenhochmoor, with its 44 ha, forms the most important and undestroyed preserved part, which is up to 8 m high. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the best preserved valley raised bog of the inner alpine region.

At the height of Frauenberg, a small village situated on the northern bank, we leave the Enns for a few hundred meters. Here we can admire the baroque pilgrimage church Frauenberg, which towers above the river. The mountain on which the pilgrimage church is located has been owned by the Admont Monastery since 1180, which probably also built the first pilgrimage site here. After that, the last few kilometers are always leisurely along the Enns River through the Natura 2000 Europe protected area to Admont (Tourist Information Tel. +43 3613 2116010), our destination, with the imposing Admont Abbey. The next day, when we enter the mountain world of the Gesäuse National Park, we have two tour options: either we stay on the main route, which leads us via the Kaiserau to the Mödlingerhütte, or we take the alpine variant, which requires appropriate experience, surefootedness, physical condition and a head for heights!

Sturdy hiking boots or good trekking shoes
Hiking backpack
Water bottle
First aid kit including blister plasters
Hiking map and smartphone
Snacks
Sunglasses
Sunscreen

You should also be well prepared for changeable weather.

Packing your backpack correctly makes things much easier:
Pack heavy items first. Your water bottle should always be easily accessible in a side pocket. Everything you need frequently, such as sunglasses, your smartphone, or hiking map, should be packed on top.

Accessible by train and bus.

Detailed information about arriving by ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) can be found at www.oebb.at or on the Verbundlinie Steiermark website www.busbahnbim.at

With Verbundlinie’s BusBahnBim route planner app, planning your journey has never been easier: simply enter towns and/or addresses, stop names or points of interest to check all bus, train and tram connections in Austria. The app is available free of charge for smartphones – on Google Play and in the App Store

Gesäuse Tourism Association
Hauptstraße 35, 8911 Admont, Austria
t: +43 3613 211610
www.gesaeuse.at
Email: info@gesaeuse.at