S01 Benedict Trail: St. Paul - Dravograd

The stage starts in St. Paul/Lavanttal at the Hofrichtertor gate and the nearby Erhardi church. The path leads eastwards (cemetery) briefly along the L 135 country road. About 100 m after the railroad bridge, you have to turn right. At the vlg. Schattenhof, follow a forest path for approx. 1 km. At a bend to the right, follow the signs to the left up to the Mayer am Hof farm (wooden arrow), then down to the left in the clearing and along a field path through the farmstead and along the access road to the junction with the asphalt road. From there, continue straight on to a wayside shrine to the Virgin Mary, where you turn left again onto the L 135 country road. After approx. 500 m on the main road in the direction of Lavamünd, first turn right at the Palko company site and then immediately left at the sign for vlg. Sepperl, turn left uphill to the aforementioned farmstead, which you cross. After a barrier at the beginning of the forest, first turn left and then immediately right along an old forest path uphill. At the farm vlg. Türkenbauer farm, follow the farm access road to the junction. The trail then continues along the asphalt road, keeping to the right downhill past the vlg. Rachur and here you later follow the marker 306 to the right into the forest. After a steep section down through the forest, turn left onto the asphalt path with a double oak tree visible from afar. At the crossroads (with arrow 'Geological nature trail'), turn right and then left at the triangle of paths down to the Harling gravel pit. You then cross the Lavamünder Straße L 80, continue left at the house Lavamünd 63 and pass the Lavamünd leisure facility. After the Drau power station, you will see the market church on the left at the beginning of Lavamünd. Head east through Lavamünd and turn right onto the R1 cycle path after the market town hall and before the cultural center. After 150 m you reach the Lavantspitz, cross the cycle and pedestrian bridge and follow the R1 cycle path along the Drau to St. Mary's Church in Pfarrdorf (pilgrim's stamp).

From there, make a pilgrimage along the R1 to the left up to the GH Hüttenwirt (pilgrim's stamp). Here you cross the Lavamünder Straße L 80 and walk uphill along the Sobother Straße or Südsteirische Grenzstraße L 69. At the farm vlg. Herke farm, follow the marked path to the right for approx. 1 km. Immediately after the farm vlg. Kumpatsch farm, take the path to the right down to the ditch and cross a stream over a wooden bridge. After the very well-kept farm vlg. Juschki, continue straight ahead on a field path for approx. 1.5 km to the Landsmannhof estate with a wayside shrine and a large lime tree in front of it. At the next two crossroads, follow the asphalt road straight ahead.

Please note: It is currently not possible to cross the Grenzbach stream! We therefore turn right at the next crossroads, past an old stable building and around 500m to the official border crossing between Austria and Slovenia. On the state road immediately after the border buildings, we turn left and then follow the cycle path to Dravograd.

You can walk through Dravograd along the main road directly to the Drava bridge in the direction of Slovenj Gradec. However, the marked path leads immediately after the church of St. Janež to the right on a path to the cemetery, past it on the right down to the Drau bend (nature reserve and bird breeding site), further along the Drau promenade and finally left again to the bridges over the Drava. A new cycle and pedestrian bridge (on an old railroad bridge) has now been built. You no longer have to walk up to the bridge for general traffic, but go down and then across the Drau.

On the other side of the Drava, you walk along the road for a while, but then follow the newly built cycle path across the Mezica. We briefly walk up the path along the river to the main road, where we turn right towards Ravne for around 300m. Turn left at the crossroads and continue along the road through the industrial area of Otiški vrh to the church of Šentjanž, where this stage ends.