Wildschönau

Altitude: 828 m a.s.l.

Wildschönau is a 24 km long high valley with four villages: Niederau, Oberau, Auffach and Thierbach. For a long time, mining was the main source of income in this area, while today tourism and pastoral economy prevail. There are also some famous citizens, including the race-car driver Norbert Siedler and Andreas Thaler (1883-1939), agricultural minister and founder of Treze Tílias (Dreizehnlinden, in German), a Tyrolean village in Brazil.

According to legends, the area of Wildschönau was once covered by a lake, and at its shores a dragon resided. When a farmer killed the dragon, before that it stroke the rock that delimited the lake. As a consequence the water of the lake flowed into a gorge, which made the beautiful Wildschönau high valley emerge. This Kundl Gorge, one of the most beautiful natural canyons of Austria, can still be visited today. Also the Lehenlahn Silver Mine in the forest evokes past times.

The Wildschönau is an active valley: Hundreds of km of hiking trails and MTB routes snake their way through the landscape, reaching as far as up to Mt. Schatzberg, which houses the mighty Ski Jewel Alpbachtal Wildschönau in winter. If you are interested in culture and in the life of mountain farmers, then the 1st Tyrolean Wood Museum and the Mountain Farmers' Museum invite you to take a look. The latter is also the venue for a handicraft market in summer, where you may try the "Wildschönauer Krautinger“, a schnapps made of the white turnip, an old domestic remedy.