N08 Benedict Pilgrimage Way Upper Austria Vorderstoder - Spital am Pyhrn

We start at the Parish Church of St. Leopold in Vorderstoder and initially walk eastwards along the main street past the municipal office, then take the hiking trail immediately on the right across the meadow down into the ditch and further up to the clearly visible farmstead named Schaffer. Upon reaching the paved access road, we now go right and at the next fork immediately take the right branch again. We pass a wayside shrine and then turn left at the first houses. After about 150 m, the path rejoins the village path. Now we continue straight on along the forest path through the Hammerlgraben. This leads alongside the Loigis stream up to the village road with a parking lot (Schafferteich parking lot). Here you can find various wooden 'artworks' and a small mill.

We then go left along the paved village road, find a wooden wayside shrine on the left and the 'cuddle bench' (created by wood artist Siegerl Pernkopf) just before the large holiday farm named Großgrub. The asphalt path straight ahead rises slightly. Upon reaching the edge of the forest, it's worth looking back over the gentle hills towards the mighty mountains of the Totes Gebirge. In the forest, the paved path ends at a right-hand curve, and we now go down the gravel road. After about 400 m, we reach meadow areas again. We continue right along the forest edge, pass above a farmstead. Attention: About 100 m after the junction to the farmstead, we turn left onto the field path across the meadow to the forest and after about 300 m reach a small watercourse, the Retschitz. We cross this and then immediately turn left onto a path. This leads slightly downhill above the watercourse through the forest. Halfway we cross another watercourse and after about 300 m reach a forest road again. We follow this left along the watercourse. Before the forest road crosses the watercourse, we turn right onto the path and later forest path (pay attention to markings!). We now follow this for about 500 m, cross a meadow (named Perleiten), and continue along the forest path in a long left curve. Attention: Again, here you must take an old forest path on the left, which ascends and after a tight right curve leads into a forest road. Here we continue sharply left and after about 100 m reach a paved farm road.

We now follow this road downhill to the left past green meadows to the farm named Weingart. Here you can also see a Wayside cross, erected in memory of a former farmer who was fatally struck by lightning here. At Weingart, we go right straight through the farm and then take the left past the adjoining outbuilding onto the field path down across the meadow. Upon reaching the forest, a path and later an old forest road lead partly steeply down to the state road and into the town of Roßleithen. This town is famous for the centuries-old tradition of (still active) scythe production.

(Vorderstoder – Roßleithen: approx. 7 km)

Upon reaching the main road, we go right over the bridge crossing the Pießling, pass a large parking lot, and walk along the road on the left sidewalk up to a left curve. We then cross the road to the former "Gasthof zum Sengsschmied" and walk right across the parking lot (with a small museum piece of iron processing).

Here on the lower right side, the new scythe factory can already be seen, but we continue past the following business buildings (possibility to purchase a new scythe or iron souvenirs). At the fork of the village paths, we take the right lower branch and now follow it past old industrial buildings (wrought iron window grilles; Spitaler marble fountain). You can also see the world's largest scythe registered in the Book of Records. A few hundred meters further, you come past the impressive "Waldhammer", an old iron processing industrial building that (renewed) still optimally uses the water power of the Pießling.

We now follow the forest road for about 300 m (where we definitely have to cross the Pießling once on a bridge on the right, beside which the Stummer mill can be admired on the left), and can admire the Pießling source (largest karst spring of the Eastern Alps!). From an underground karst lake fed by precipitation from the mountain massif above, emerges the powerful stream, which immediately roars down the rocks. The water has been economically used for centuries and we also see a water pipeline winding along the stream.

A bit further left, we find the pedestrian bridge over the Pießling, which we now cross again. On the other side, there are stairs going steeply up a short distance, and we reach a paved village road. We now follow this right slightly uphill for about 1 km and then continue in the forest along the forest road. Attention: After about 200 m, we leave this to the right and continue on the wonderful hiking trail up to the hill (with turnstile). From here, we already look down on the Gleinkersee, which nestles against the steep mountain slopes. We now go left on the paved path downhill for about 200 m and then turn right onto the hiking trail directly to the Gleinkersee, which leads us then on the left side directly to the Seebauer guesthouse, offering products from its own organic farm. Here we can rest and refresh or even try out the warmest mountain lake in Upper Austria.

After the wooden outbuilding below the camping area, we turn immediately left before the paved access road and go down the short marked path to the large parking lot. We follow this northwards in length and then follow slightly downhill the access road (Gleinkerseestraße) for about 200 m to a right curve. Attention: Here there is a house approximately straight ahead. Taking the short driveway, the entrance to the forest path is found immediately left next to the house (pay attention to the marking!). We follow the path downhill and end up again on the Gleinkerseestraße. We follow this about 30 m to the right and then find – crossing the road to the left – another forest and meadow path, which now partly steeply descends to a farm. We bypass it on the left via the access road (do not go directly through the farm), come again on the Gleinkerseestraße, which we follow downhill to the right for about 100 m. We then cross the road again to the left and descend (at a bicycle prohibition sign) partly steeply downhill on the forest path (including over a small bridge) to the next farm (holiday farm named Unterkotgraben, family Schmeißl). Here we go straight through the farm and follow the access road, which now merges again into the Gleinkersee district road.

We now follow this two-lane road straight ahead for about 2 km, pass under the Pyhrn motorway A9, go past the Schusterhansl chapel, briefly pass under the federal road B138 as well as the Pyhrn railway. Immediately after the railway underpass, we go right up the gravel road and then left follow the path further. This field path, which offers a beautiful view of the market town Windischgarsten, we follow for about 500 m to the paved road. We now walk on it, ignoring the right cross street, straight ahead to the Gleinkerseestraße. We then take the sidewalk on the right (passing the elementary school and the Kulturhaus Römerfeld on the left) to the main street and continue past beautiful townhouses, shops, and places to rest into the center of Windischgarsten, arriving at the main square with the municipal office, its beautiful town hall bay window, and the market fountain with the Marian column. Now the parish church of St. Jakob is already in sight, with its massive tower-like church tower, which – rarely for churches – is attached to the nave.

(Roßleithen – Windischgarsten: approx. 8 km)

For the further route, we walk through the church park left of the church, past the church tower and the beautifully designed so-called "Psalms Way" (the Lourdes grotto is on the right), then left through the archway of the old cemetery and church wall up a small alley equipped with stairs (named "Benediktweg") to the "Pyhrnstraße". Here we then go left about 50 m in front of the large department store – crossing the street – and now right up the stairs on the left side of the department store. At the top, we follow the "Rosenauerweg" right for about 100 m, then do not turn left down the street to the local history museum, but take the newly created path straight ahead on the left edge of the meadow (marked hiking trail). We follow this path for about 500 m and then go left down the gravel road with a hairpin bend to the bank of the Dambach. We are now in the Windischgarsten Nature Park with the interesting geological stone display. We now walk the path on the right along the Dambach upstream on the gravel hiking trail, first flat, then rising, then falling again. After about 1 km, this path, which also goes through the forest, leads us to a sawmill, which we reach via a bridge. We walk straight through the company premises (attention commercial traffic!) and then turn right onto the paved village road. At some houses ("Dörfl") and a narrow spot, we take the path left before the bridge. After the village sign, we continue straight ahead, then see the Edlbach golf course to the right and left and come to a crossroads. We now follow the road right for about 200 m along some houses (including the "Café Pension Sophie") and turn left at the next crossroads into another farm road. Now it goes gently uphill for about 400 m to a farm (named Hansl im Graben), where we go straight uphill again for about 150 m. At the following right turn, we now take the left turn onto the gravel road, which leads us down into the Fraitgraben. Down below, we cross the bridge over the "Winkler Bach" and walk right about 2.2 km on the forestry road through the ditch. (If we want to see a small but fine waterfall, we take the hiking trail left after the bridge for about 200 m, which we then have to return on again.) Along the way, we pass a water sluice for a small power plant and the "Ramitscheder Mill" (which could go back into operation at any time; pilgrim stamp place!). At the end of the ditch, after crossing a bridge, we encounter a paved path near the former "Stanglmühle". Before the house, we then go steeply up to the right and come to the hilly and wide area of the village Oberweng with its lush meadows and the magnificent view of the mountain world of the Hallermauern (Great and Small Pyhrgas, Bosruck), the Sengsengebirge (Hoher Nock), the Warscheneck massif, and the peaks of the Totes Gebirge in the west.

(Windischgarsten – Stanglmühle: approx. 6.5 km)

Keeping left, we see straight ahead the beautifully situated "Danschbacher Chapel" (fountain for drinking water!). We follow the path, which passes the chapel and later descends briefly through a short forest section and passes two houses. At the following crossroads (power poles) on the open meadow area, we take the right downhill path and come after about 200 m to the farm named Helml. Here we follow the access road straight and slightly downhill for about 250 m but then turn left onto the access road to a large farm slightly uphill. After the stable and residential building, we turn right and go to the following meadow path, which leads us slightly uphill to a group of trees with a bench to rest. Here you can let your gaze wander over the beautiful Priel-Pyhrn region. The meadow path leads into the forest and descending slightly we arrive at a narrow section and a fence (see marking). Here you turn sharply right and now initially slightly uphill follow the forest path along the small watercourse down to the next farm. Its access road leads us straight to the federal road. We cross this and walk right (northwards) on the side road for about 100 m. Here we turn left onto the paved farm road. Still before the railway tracks, we turn left and follow the gravel road (which is also a cycle path) – past a railway underpass, the Fredi lake, and the Kohlhof with its fish ponds – for about 1.2 km to the federal road. Here we have to walk right again for about 200 m on the bike and pedestrian path alongside the federal road and then turn right before the sports field into the village path (Benediktweg information board). (You could also take the beautiful chestnut avenue straight here, which leads directly to the former collegiate church.) But we continue right on the field path, reach a crossroads after a while where we go left past the Dr. Girtler wayside shrine and continue. On the way, there are always places and panels about the life story of St. Benedict ("Benedikt meditation trail"), which have been created by confirmation candidates of the parish. Finally, we come down again to the paved village road, which leads us directly to the destination, the former collegiate, provost, and collegiate church "Assumption of Mary" in Spital am Pyhrn.

(Stanglmühle – Spital am Pyhrn: approx. 6 km)