Etappe 06: BergZeitReise - von Neuberg an der Mürz auf die Schneealm

Stage 6 - at a glance:

Start: Neuberg an der Mürz, tourist information, overnight accommodations: Tel.: +43 3857 8321, www.muerzeroberland.at

Cab services: Nature Park Hiking Taxi Tel.: +43 3857 20170

GPS grid N 47° 39' 47,5" E 15° 34' 44,3"Destination / overnight stop: Schneealpenhaus or alpine pastures on the Schneealm,Tel.: +43 3857 2190, www.schneealpenhaus.com

GPS grid N 47° 41' 46,8" O 15° 36' 34,6"

 

Stage length: 11 kilometers

Total walking time (without breaks): 5 ½ hours

Vertical meters ascent: 1,280 vertical meters

Meters of altitude descent: 255 meters of altitude

Difficulties: classic mountain hike, on the Schneealm plateau in bad weather / fog orientation not quite easy!

more waypoints

In 1327, a Cistercian abbey was founded by Duke Otto the Happy in the present-day village of Neuberg an der Mürz. The gothic hall church of the abbey could only be completed in 1446. Today, the wooden roof truss with more than 1100 m³ of larch wood is considered the largest and most important in the German-speaking area . In 1786 Joseph II abolished the monastery and as a result the monastery church became the Neuberg parish church.

Emperor Franz Joseph I had the monastery adapted as a hunting lodge after 1850 and used it regularly for hunting stays. In addition, he had his own hunting lodge built in Mürzsteg in 1870, which has served as a summer retreat for the respective Federal President since 1947. When the Neuberg Railway was opened in 1879 as a standard-gauge branch line to the southern railroad line, the imperial family often traveled by train to Neuberg in the upper Mürz Valley. Passenger service was discontinued in 1996. In 2011, the Mürzzuschlag-Neuberg section was opened on the disused line as part of the R5 cycle route.

As early as the 15th century, the Neuberg monastery had started mining and iron production in the area. This reached its peak in the Neuberg ironworks in the 19th century with the largest steam hammer in the monarchy at that time . However, with the exhaustion of iron deposits in Altenberg, where mining had already been going on for centuries, the industry increasingly lost its basis; in 1924, the steel and rolling mill in Neuberg was shut down.

In the monastery there was already centuries ago briefly a glassworks . Since the summer of 2010, the "Kaiserhof" glass manufactory has once again been producing high-quality and artistic colored glass, and for many years the "Neuberg Culture Days" have formed one of the most important cultural initiatives in the region.