Discover Waldkirchen Am Wesen

Waldkirchen Am Wesen is located on the Sauwald plateau, near the steep drop into the Danube Valley. Its landscape, views, trails and culture offer various ways to shape a stay. When planning, you can decide whether you mainly want to spend time outdoors, enjoy expansive views, or focus on architecture, crafts and art.

Landscape and views

The location on the Sauwald plateau and its proximity to the steep drop into the Danube Valley frame the landscape. The Vier-Viertel-Blick in Atzersdorf offers a specific vantage point: from there, the 360° panoramic view extends across the Innviertel, Mühlviertel, Hausruckviertel and Traunviertel regions of Upper Austria. The panorama thus takes in all four regions hinted at in the name. The landscape can therefore be viewed on two different levels: the plateau describes Waldkirchen Am Wesen’s location, while the Vier-Viertel-Blick refers to the named viewpoint in Atzersdorf and its panorama.

Trails on foot and by bike

Waldkirchen Am Wesen has around 60 kilometres of opportunities for hiking, running and Nordic walking. This figure refers to these different activities, not to the length of a single tour. One specifically named route is the Donau Resonanzweg, which is just under 13 kilometres long. Allow time and make sure you have a reasonable level of fitness for this tour. All the exercises take place on the trails or immediately beside them. The individual route is therefore significantly shorter than the roughly 60 kilometres of options available overall. Cycling the Danube Cycle Path is also one of the options mentioned in Waldkirchen Am Wesen.

Another trail leads to the Bräukapelle chapel. It is located on the “Bründlweg” hiking trail, No. 89, which runs from Wesenufer to Waldkirchen. There is a spring with a ladle at the chapel. So, alongside the Donau Resonanzweg, visitors looking into the trails will also find a route with a clearly named connection between two places and a specific stop at the Bräukapelle chapel.

Church, castle and boatbuilding

The Gothic parish church of St. Nicholas has a net-ribbed vault, a striking architectural detail. The ruins of Wesen Castle can also be identified by specific structural features: surviving sections of wall belong to a rectangular keep and palas, as well as remnants of the curtain wall and zwinger. The keep is a castle’s main tower, while the palas was its residential and ceremonial building; the curtain wall and zwinger refer to other parts of a fortified complex. The named wall sections and remains thus bring several elements of the former castle complex into focus.

The permanent exhibition “Die Zille” offers another perspective on history and craftsmanship. It features models of wooden boats and the tools used to make them. It also explores the role of Zille and wooden boatbuilding in the past and present. This brings both the boats’ designs and the craft behind their construction into focus.

The Atelier Fahrner sculpture park is freely accessible around the clock. It features metal sculptures by Annemarie and Günther Fahrner. Alongside the church, castle ruins and Zille exhibition, the park adds metal art to the selection. The cultural themes are distinctly varied: from a Gothic vault and surviving castle features to wooden boatbuilding and the sculptures by the artist couple.

Discover more destinations: Gumping, Raab, Diersbach, Sankt Roman, Andorf, Mayrhof, Kopfing Im Innkreis, Vichtenstein.

For the higher-level travel overview: Schärding.