Iron Curtain Trail

The trail opens at the Bavarian-Bohemian-Austrian tripoint in the Bohemian Forest, the highest point of the route. Past Schlägl Abbey and over the hills of the Upper Mühlviertel it follows the Green Belt to Bad Leonfelden and on to the border villages of Windhaag and Leopoldschlag, where open-air museums recall the former death strip.

Ascent

1,957 m

Descent

2,286 m

Duration

approx. 6-9 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel, some climbs

A long, lonely stage through the Freiwald and the northern Waldviertel - dense forest, raised bogs and almost no traffic. Past Weitra with its brewing heritage the route reaches the twin town of Gmünd, whose station quarter České Velenice now flows seamlessly into the Czech Republic - where the barbed wire once stood.

Ascent

1,309 m

Descent

1,516 m

Duration

approx. 5-8 hrs

Surface

asphalt & forest tracks

Through the Waldviertel 'water realm' of ponds and bogs: the mighty moated castle of Heidenreichstein and the silent raised bog accompany the way to Litschau, Austria's northernmost town on the Herrensee. A flat, almost Scandinavian lake-and-pond landscape.

Ascent

400 m

Descent

301 m

Duration

approx. 2-4 hrs

Surface

mostly asphalt

The route meets the Thaya and follows the meandering border river. Via Raabs, where the German and Moravian Thaya merge, it reaches the fully walled little town of Drosendorf - a jewel frozen in time high above the Thaya bend.

Ascent

755 m

Descent

937 m

Duration

approx. 5-7 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

The scenic heart of the trail: Thayatal National Park. Steep wooded gorges, rare orchids and a river landscape grown back together lead to Hardegg, Austria's smallest town. The pedestrian suspension bridge over the Thaya to Čížov symbolically links the twin national parks of Thayatal and Podyjí.

Ascent

375 m

Descent

566 m

Duration

approx. 2-4 hrs

Surface

asphalt & natural paths

Out of the Thaya woods into the open Weinviertel. Gentle hills, cellar lanes and apricot orchards lead to the wine town of Retz with its vast underground cellar labyrinth, its showpiece square and the country's only surviving windmill.

Ascent

578 m

Descent

635 m

Duration

approx. 3-5 hrs

Surface

mostly asphalt

Across the northern Weinviertel and its cellar lanes the route returns to the Thaya. Laa an der Thaya - an old border stronghold with a castle, brewing tradition and thermal spa - sits right on the former Iron Curtain opposite Moravia.

Ascent

16 m

Descent

145 m

Duration

approx. 3-5 hrs

Surface

asphalt

Along the Thaya to its confluence with the March: flat borderland with wide fields, riparian forest and the UNESCO Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape just across the line. At Hohenau the March-Thaya floodplains begin - one of Central Europe's most species-rich wetlands.

Ascent

443 m

Descent

459 m

Duration

approx. 4-7 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

Through the broad floodplains along the March (Morava), which here forms the border with Slovakia. Storks and sea eagles over the meadows; at Marchegg one of Europe's largest white-stork colonies nests in the treetops of the WWF reserve around the Baroque palace.

Ascent

41 m

Descent

65 m

Duration

approx. 3-5 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

Past the Baroque ensemble of Schloss Hof the 'Bridge of Freedom' - once sealed by barbed wire - crosses the March to Devínska Nová Ves in Slovakia. Skirting the Danube with Bratislava and Devín castle in view, the route reaches Kittsee, gateway to the Slovak capital.

Ascent

48 m

Descent

54 m

Duration

approx. 2-4 hrs

Surface

asphalt

From the Danube out into the wide Pannonian plain. Across the Parndorf plateau and the Seewinkel hinterland the route reaches Andau and its famous bridge - across which tens of thousands fled to Austria after the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

Ascent

2 m

Descent

41 m

Duration

approx. 3-6 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

Around the southern end of Lake Neusiedl through the cross-border Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park: soda lakes, reed belts and puszta vastness, then along the Hungarian Fertő shore back into Austria to the wine village of Mörbisch with its lake stage.

Ascent

187 m

Descent

97 m

Duration

approx. 4-7 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

A short, history-laden stage: at the border near Sopron on 27 June 1989 foreign ministers Mock and Horn cut through the barbed wire, and at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 the Iron Curtain first opened. The old royal town of Sopron with its medieval centre is the destination.

Ascent

336 m

Descent

74 m

Duration

approx. 2-3 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel

Along the foot of the Güns Mountains (Kőszegi-hegység) through the Hungarian borderland, a rolling, wooded country. The goal is Kőszeg (Güns), one of Hungary's best-preserved Renaissance old towns hard on the Austrian border.

Ascent

491 m

Descent

392 m

Duration

approx. 4-6 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel, hilly

Back into Austria's Südburgenland, in the shadow of the Geschriebenstein (884 m), Burgenland's highest point with its lookout tower. At Rechnitz the Kreuzstadl recalls a massacre in the final days of the war in 1945; in Bildein the open-air museum 'What the border tells' and the Path of Peace invite reflection.

Ascent

213 m

Descent

341 m

Duration

approx. 2-4 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel, hilly

Through gentle Südburgenland with its thatched cellar quarters - in Heiligenbrunn the rare Uhudler wine matures - and the tripoint country on the Raab. At Felsőszölnök, where Austria, Hungary and Slovenia meet, the Austrian section of the Iron Curtain Trail ends; EuroVelo 13 continues on towards Slovenia and the Adriatic.

Ascent

356 m

Descent

225 m

Duration

approx. 3-5 hrs

Surface

asphalt & gravel