Wanderweg St. Thomas Höhenweg

6 High trail to St. Thomas (8,500m)
St. Thomas am Balsenstein is known for its "Bucklwehluckn".

Head westwards via the Hinterkirner farm (see trail 4a) into the Thomastal valley. At Klein Freinhofer you come to Klingenbergstraße (1,760 m), on which you continue right for 50 m and then turn left across the meadow. A narrow footbridge leads over the Klausbach stream and a forest path then climbs steeply up to the Bairhofer chapel. Here you come to the goods road, which you leave again at Kronegger and climb up to the Thomasreith plateau (beautiful panoramic view). At the Edmayr chapel (4,130 m) you reach the Größing goods road, which you follow between meadows and fields to Saxenegger Straße. Continue along this road in a northerly direction to the Martaler Chapel (6,380 m) and climb up the S1 procession path lined with chapels to St. Thomas am Blasenstein on the left. St. Thomas am Blasenstein at 722 metres above sea level is known far and wide as a vantage point and for its "Bucklwehluckn". Two large granite blocks form the Bucklwehluckn on a rock plateau. If you squeeze through this narrow crevice, you will be cured of all back pain.
Today, the parish church of St Thomas, which is well worth seeing, stands on the elevated rocky plateau of the former castle "Castrum Plasenstain". In its lower church rests the mummified body of the 18th century canon Franz Xaverius Sydler de Rosenegg, popularly known as the "luftg'selchter Pfarrer".