Danube Cycle Route Stage 5 South Bank: Melk - Mautern

This stage leads you along the Dunkelsteiner Forest, one of the largest contiguous forest areas in Central Europe. The advantage of the route on the south bank is the wide view – over the magnificent landscape of the Wachau World Heritage Site with its lovely, rocky forest slopes, terraced hills and vineyards as well as with the charming towns on the opposite bank. Before leaving Melk, the "Gate to the Wachau", you should definitely visit the abbey founded by the Benedictines in 1089. The magnificent library with its 85,000 volumes and a ceiling fresco by Paul Troger houses, among other things, a fragment of the Nibelungenlied.

This ancient epic might remind you on the way of the historically rich landscape you are crossing. This is also evidenced by prehistoric finds at Schönbühel. This village with the charming castle on the Danube shore you pass on the way to Aggstein, where the eponymous, legendary castle ruin (12th century) beckons 300 meters above the Danube. Here once lived "Knight Schreckenwald" (Jörg Schenk), who extorted tolls from Danube boatmen. Those who refused to pay had to starve on a balcony-like rock ledge, the "rose garden".

Leisurely enjoyment of the landscape is on the agenda until Mautern. Along the way you will encounter small villages with delightful little churches and attractive old miner and farm houses as well as, near Bacharnsdorf, remains of the ancient Roman Danube Limes fortifications, which have been integrated into buildings and gardens here.

Melk - Schönbühel on the Danube - Aggsbach - Aggstein - Rührsdorf - Rossatz-Arnsdorf - Mautern

Route description:

This route along the south bank of the Danube starts in Melk, also called the "Gate to the Wachau". The cultural landscape is part of the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage and known for its lush green hills with steep slopes, in which countless vineyards are lined up. But the town itself is already worth a visit; it houses an abbey described as the "most iconic and dominant Baroque building" and also includes the Stiftsgymnasium Melk, Austria's oldest existing school.

Thanks to this great start, you are well prepared for the rest of the route. The route takes you downstream along the Danube Cycle Path. First, you pass through the towns of Schönbühel on the Danube and Schönbühel-Aggsbach and enjoy the beautiful flora and fauna of the Wachau, which is not only a World Heritage Site and one of Europe's most enchanting river valleys but also an internationally renowned wine region and a preferred meeting point for connoisseurs. Here you will find cultural treasures and natural beauties that are worth visiting for everyone. Shortly after Schönbühel-Aggsbach, lovers of old castles and fortresses are rewarded in Aggstein. Here the ruin of Aggstein crowns a green hill on our right.

Past the remains of the old castle, you ride on the federal road to Sankt Johann im Mauerthal, where you then turn onto the Danube Cycle Path and cycle directly along the riverbank. With a magnificent view of the Danube Bend near Spitz, you only join the B33 again in Bacharnsdorf. This continues until you reach the Danube Bend near Rossatz-Arnsdorf, where you turn off the federal road in St. Lorenz to cycle through Rührsdorf and Rossatz-Arnsdorf. Here you can discover some historic parts of the Danube Limes.

Soon after, you steer your bike back onto the B33 to steadily approach your destination. At Hundsheim, you leave the federal road for the last time and head to your destination, the town centre of Mautern on the Danube. Here the culture lovers get their money’s worth again, because Mautern has a long Roman historical background and offers many finds from this time. Thus, you can end the day in this beautiful town and conclude your route for today.