Wars, plague, and conflagration: Settlement history of the Gföhlerwald and its forest offices
Popis
The originally closed “Vorst” has only been settled for 400 years; before that, it served as the hunting grounds of the territorial lord (see Jaidhof = hunting lodge). In 1597, rebellious Waldviertel farmers hid in the Gföhlerwald. After the sale in 1608, the forest was settled on behalf of the new owners of the Gföhl lordship for more intensive use by woodcutters, charcoal burners, glassmakers, and tenant farmers, and was administered by foresters (hence the designation “office” for the scattered settlements). In 1771, eight farmers, subjects of the lord of Sinzendorf, were banished to the Banat together with their families for refusing forced labor. After the great plague epidemic, the Rosalia chapel was built in the Gföhleramt in 1680 (Rosalia – the plague saint) and enlarged twice. A memorial stone at the chapel commemorates the development of the Gföhlerwald, and nearby is the Fux farmhouse museum. In the “cold trench” are the former glassmakers’ settlement, the Drescher huts, fish ponds, the Schweizerhof, the museum “Old Icehouse,” and the neoclassical castle in Jaidhof, all reminders of the once very wealthy lordship.
Výchozí bod trasy
Gföhl, Main Square
Cílový bod trasy
Gföhl, Main Square
Popis trasy Chapel hike into the Gföhleramt
From the main square, you walk through Jaidhofer Gasse and Brunnkandlallee to Kreuzgasse until the heating plant. Through the underpass of the B37, the path leads along the Jaidhofer castle park to Schweizerhof (manor of the lordship). You continue on the Red Cross path to the Rosalia chapel and the farmhouse museum, up to the Reisingerhöhe (648 m) and from the Winkler guesthouse over to the Eisenbergeramt. Here you can make a detour to the Florian chapel (Florian = patron saint against fires) (signposted). In Kalter Graben, you pass the Drachenstein (note the ballad engraved here) and the glassmakers' settlement and continue hiking over the Drescher pond and the Drescher huts back to the castle park (museum), over the Johannes path (wayside chapel) and through the underpass of the B37 back to the main square in Gföhl.
Příjezd
Take Vienna A22 and S5 or A1 and S33 to Krems and from there via B37 to Gföhl.
From Linz via A1 to St. Pölten, then via S33 to Krems and from there via B37 to Gföhl.
Parkování
Sparkassenstraße (behind the town hall), Feldgasse parking lot (note partial short-term parking zone), Dipl. Ing. Leopold Figl-Platz (partial short-term parking zone), warehouse
All information about all bus and train lines to the Waldviertel can be found at www.vor.at or www.oebb.at.
