WAB - Stage 3: Thernberg - Wiesmath

Description

The historic centre of the village of Thernberg has a distinctive atmosphere. The first part of the route is on a road with little traffic, and it always provides wonderful views back of the Thernberg ruins. Just before Maria Schnee the landscape opens up and we get a view of the Bucklige Welt: Meadows, fields, groves, and villages switch around whilst the terrain is extremely hilly and astonishes people with deep ditches. The Maria Schnee and St. Anna pilgrimage churches provide spiritual sustenance.

Starting point of the tour

Thernberg, Landgasthof Thaler

Destination point of the tour

Wiesmath municipal office / Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul

Route description WAB - Stage 3: Thernberg - Wiesmath

We start at Landgasthaus Thaler, go directly past it on the left. We then pass the church and Erzherzog-Johann-Platz on the right-hand side and hike the next 3.8 kilometres along the road uphill towards Wiesmath. Several minutes after passing through Eichberg we veer right at a left-hand bend, then go left into the trail to Kreuth. At the gravel store, ignore the branch marked out in green, whilst the Viennese Alps Way veers left onto a forest path a few metres further on. Upon crossing a paved road, we then reach a woodland path. A couple of minutes afterwards, we turn left at a crossroads and ascend up a hiking path to a forest road. We continue uphill along a forest road and leave the forest. At the first fork we veer onto a field path and hike along the edge of the forest to the Kaltenberger Höhe. We turn left at this point before reaching the village of Kaltenberg. After stopping for a bite to eat at Gasthof Maria Schnee (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays), we continue to the Maria Schnee Pilgrimage Church.

After going past the church, we turn left onto a marked path and go past some houses. Forest and meadow paths take us slightly downhill to a driveway, where we turn left onto a track and then ascend to the country road heading to Lichtenegg. After a few minutes we reach the village on the right-hand side of the country road. We head along Hauptstraße, keep left at the crossroads before the cemetery, and turn left onto Schulstraße before reaching the Feuerwehrhaus. When on the edge of the forest, turn left and follow the marked path downhill into the forest, keep right at a fork after a ditch with a stream alongside it, then ascend from the ditch over a meadow to the small settlement of Pesendorf. At the chapel we veer right and follow the road curving left until reaching a crossroads. We cross the road and continue downhill along the track. At the edge of a forest turn right onto a forest road, head downhill through the woods and continue to Stickelberg via meadow paths. After heading past the church at Stickelberg and the homely Gasthof Pension Stickelberg, we follow the road to the Hauptstraße in the direction of Hollergraben, and then hike left along Hauptstraße. After a bridge to Schlattenbach and after a chapel we turn right, away from the road, and carry on along meadow and forest paths to Hammelhof.  At this point, turn right onto a picturesque track, head past a Mostschank (fruit wine bar) and a chapel before continuing along Höhenstraße to the main road to Wiesmath. The municipal office can be found on the left-hand side.