Wachau Cultural Landscape
Posted by: 
Tafari
N 48° 21.867 E 015° 26.050
33U E 532158 N 5356899
The Wachau is a danube-valley what begins in Melk and ends in Krems and Göttweig. It is a World Heritege Site by the UNESCO since 2000.
Waymark Code: WM5MV
Location: Niederösterreich, Austria
Date Posted: 01/04/2006
Views: 125
The Wachau is a well known
Austrian
valley with a landscape of high visual quality formed by the
Danube river.
It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of
Lower
Austria, located between the towns of
Melk and
Krems. It is 30
km in
length and was allready settled in prehistoric times. A well-known place and
tourist magnet is
Dürnstein,
where King
Richard the Lion-Hearted of
England was
held captive by Duke
Leopold V.
The Wachau is a something over 30 km long tourism
and wine landscape with the principal places Spitz (with Spitzer Graben),
Weissenkirchen and Dürnstein. The southern (right) Danube bank is characterized
by the Dunkelsteiner forest. Here are appropriate Danube downward the
municipalities Melk, Schoenbuehel, Aggsbach, Rossatz, Arnsdorf, Bergern in the
Dunkelsteiner forest and Mautern. The landscape is on the one hand by the Danube
and the banknear, climatically favoured ranges and on the other hand the
adjacent hills of the Dunkelsteiner forest and the Waldviertel with cold winters
(heights to over 900 m). The mild climate in the valley led also to intensive
wine and fruit-growing, which are operated at the slopes in stone terraces. For
the wine quality are the frequent sun days and the cool nights of importance. As
wine specialities the Riesling and the Grüner Veltliner are considered. The wine
bar in numerous "Heurigen", that winegrowers, who offer wine and simple meals
for some weeks in the year, are effected. With the fruit above all the Wachauer
Marille (apricot) is to be noted.
History
In the Middle Ages the Wachau was controlled by
the Kuenringer, which possessed in Aggstein (southern the Danube) and in
Duernstein (northern the Danube) castles and They were well known to live as
robbery knights of "duty payments" of the navigation on the danube. Under the
Kuenringern however a comparatively highly developed community was founded. The
Kuenringer were militarily beaten and their castles were destroyed. As ruins they
are still place for excursions, whereby Duernstein is attractive as city also
and the ruin Aggstein offers simple restaurant with rudimentary overnight
accomodations. With the time of the Kuenringer also the legend of the
inprisonment of the English king Richard lion heart is in Duernstein connected,
whose truth content is however disputed. Richard lion heart might have been kept
imprisoned in truth in Vienna. A further object of interest is the oldest church
of the Wachau, the "military church St. Michael". Military church, since the
building was fastened as precautionary measure against the penetrating Turk
armies. End 19.Century began the upswing of the Wachau as trip area of the
Viennese. The tourism reached itself in the time after the Second World War a
further high point, also in Austrian film productions (Mariandl, Hofrat
Geiger..., Films in particular with the actor Hans Moser) struck down. Many in
this time of the used tourist cafes disappeared.
More Information (in german language) you can
find here.
This waymark can only be logged as visited, when you visit this waymarks first:
Stift Melk (WM4T6)
Stift Göttweig (WM4T5)
This waymarks are at the beginn and the end of
the Wachau-valley. So when you visited both, you can also log your visit of your journey through this valley!!
Happy waymarking
Ras Tafari