Jakobsweg Donau: Purkersdorf - Maria Taferl

Safety Guidelines

Please follow these tips and guidelines to ensure that your hiking vacation is a wonderful experience:

· Stay on the marked trails.

· Wear sturdy shoes.

· Bring enough drinking water and, if necessary, a snack.

· Please do not leave your trash behind on the trail.

· Respect the sensitive habitats of the flora and fauna.

You undertake the suggested tour at your own risk and on your own responsibility.

This section of the Way of St. James begins in Purkersdorf, a town in the Vienna Woods west of Vienna. It first winds through the hilly, deciduous forest landscape of the Vienna Woods (Troppberg hiking region), passes the monastery ruins at Riederberg, and then reaches the edge of the Tullnerfeld in Sieghartskirchen. It continues through Siegersdorf, where, in addition to a St. James’s Fountain, a self-catering pilgrim cabin invites visitors to rest and linger comfortably. In Würmla, the trail enters the “Weinland-Traisental” tourism region and continues westward, past the Bildeiche oak tree and the “Eiserne Hand” (Iron Hand) monument, to the St. James’s Fountain in Langmannersdorf. We reach the geographic center of Lower Austria and, shortly thereafter, the Augustinian Canons’ Abbey of Herzogenburg. The Way of St. James continues northeast past Walpersdorf Castle and through vineyards to the Maria-Elend pilgrimage chapel and Paudorf, where it crosses the Lower Austrian Mariazellerweg, into the picturesque foothills of the Dunkelsteiner Forest, before joining the next section of the Austrian Way of St. James at the Benedictine Abbey of Göttweig. From Göttweig Abbey, the pilgrimage route covers approximately 24 km via Mautern to Maria Langegg. From Maria Langegg, via Wolfstein Castle to Melk Abbey, the route through the Dunkelsteiner Forest covers a distance of about 20 km. The final stage of the Danube Way of St. James takes us from Melk Abbey along the banks of the Danube, through the idyllic villages of Leiben and Artstetten—with their castles and churches—all the way to Maria Taferl.