Virtual Vienna Net - Through Billie Ann's Eyes - The Wachau: Thirty-Five Kilometers Of Austrian Enchantment

Within her protruding belly we know new life is forming. From her full breasts we know it will be sustained. She's quite a powerful little lady, in spite of being only ten centimeters tall. Her name, the Venus of Willendorf, is taken from the village on the Danube where she was unearthed in 1908. She's old, between 20,000 and 30,000 B.C.

The Venus of Willendorf is only one of many artifacts that survive from the Danube's ancient past to inform the present. Legends, too, survive. Just a few kilometers from Melk and the beginning of the Wachau, part of the great German epic saga Song of the Nibelungs took place. Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried, is said to have traveled down the Danube from her home on the Rhine to meet Attila the Hun, whom she wished to marry as part of her plan to exact revenge on her two brothers for murdering Siegfried.

(Donau in German) begins its 1,776 mile journey from Donaueschingen in the German Black Forest. By the time this great river reaches the Wachau, many rivers have joined it as it winds its way through Central and Eastern Europe on its way to the Black Sea. The Wachau itself is a 35 kilometer stretch of the Danube Valley that starts in Melk and ends in Krems. It is a region known for its great natural beauty, enhanced each spring by its flowering peach, apricot, and almond orchards and greening terraced vineyards.

The magnificent Baroque Benedictine monastery sits theatrically on a rock promontory overlooking an arm of the Danube. Some say this site marks the birthplace of Austria itself. The monastery began as a Roman fortress and became the seat of the Babenberg court from 976 to 1089. The Babenberg margrave Leopold II gave the fortress to the Benedictines, who turned it into a fortified abbey. In 1702 it was transformed into a Baroque masterpiece. With its twin towers, immense dome and splendid location, the monastery is a site of exquisite beauty unmatched in Central Europe.

For a nominal entrance fee, visitors can explore several rooms of exhibits that describe the history of the monastery before stepping out onto the monastery's wondrous balcony overlooking the Danube and the village of Melk below.

Visitors then enter the monastery's magnificent library on the other side to view its frescoed ceilings. A final stop in the monastery's lavishly gilded Baroque church is awesome beyond belief and completes the tour.

Looming 300 meters above the Danube, on the other side of the river as you approach St. Michael, are the Kuenringer fortified castle ruins. The Kuenringers were powerful barons in the 12th and 13th centuries who fought both the Babenbergs and then the Habsburgs for control of the Danube. After their defeat, Joerg Scheck vom Wald gained ownership and harassed river traffic by kidnapping travelers for ransom. According to legend, he kept his hostages on a small rocky outcrop just outside the castle walls, known as the Rose Garden. Victims not ransomed faced starvation or jumping to their death.

A few kilometers down the Danube from Melk, the village of St. Michael offers a quiet contrast to the glories of Melk. Its richly decorated late Gothic parish church contains many works of religious art and crossing the church's tiled roof are seven small creatures. Some legends say they are hares, though close examination reveals they all are not. Others think the figures symbolize animals seeking refuge on the roof during heavy snows some long ago winter.

Behind the church a charnel house stands next to a round Gothic tower. Two small windows look down onto a macabre altar made up of human skulls dating back to 1150-1300. The charnel house also contains some mummified corpses and a Josephinian coffin that has a trapdoor beneath that when released, dropped the corpse into its grave so that the coffin could be reused.

A large but increasingly faded St. Christopher on the wall facing the church reflects the importance of religion in the everyday life of the faithful. It was thought that seeing an image of St. Christopher protected you from sudden death. The villagers in St. Michael made their St. Christopher a giant, allowing them and passing travelers to easily see him from a distance as they went about their daily routines.

Approaching Spitz, the ruins of the 13th century Burg Hinterhaus can be seen above the village. The castle once housed the Kuenringer family mentioned earlier. St. Mauritius, the late Gothic parish church at the far end of the village, contains numerous religious treasures including carved wooden figures of Christ and his 12 Apostles in niches in its fine Gothic gallery.

Spitz is well known for its wine, produced from the surrounding terraced vineyards. The hill on which it sits is known as the Tausendeimerberg, meaning the Thousand Buckets Mountain. In good years, the vineyards of Spitz are said to produce a thousand buckets of very good white wine.

Cascading down the side of a hill further along the Danube is a wall of boulders said to have been built by the devil. According to legend, the devil felt obliged to get rid of St. Johann's church on the other side of the Danube. To do so, he decided to build a dam across the river, thereby flooding the church.

Because the devil could only do his evil work before the first rooster crowed at dawn, he bought up all the cocks in the area to prevent them from crowing before he finished his dam.

Still, one villager managed to hide his cock, who promptly heralded the rising sun at dawn with an outraged crow after being pinched. The devil had to abandon his work and flee--but on his way he shot the cock weathervane on the roof of St. Johann on the other side of the Danube.

Competing with Melk for the title of "most beautiful" is the small village of Dürnstein. Sitting above the swift-moving Danube, this walled village is packed with legend and sites of interest. Half a kilometer above the village are the ancient ruins of another Kuenringer castle. It was in this castle's dungeon that the crusading English king Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned from 1192-93. Richard offended the Austrian Duke Leopold V, also a crusader, while in Palestine. As he made his way home to England later, Richard's ship sank, forcing him to travel overland in disguise, but he was caught near Vienna. Blondel, his faithful minstrel, rode from castle to castle singing Richard's favorite song, until Richard's voice sang out in response. A ransom of 150,000 silver marks was eventually paid to release him. The money was used to build the city walls that once encircled Vienna.

In addition to the castle ruins which provide wonderful views of the village, the Danube, and the surrounding hills, Dürnstein has many richly decorated 15th century houses and a splendid Baroque parish church, Maria Himmelfahrt, that was once part of the Augustine monastery. Now painted a brilliant sky blue, the church spire is one of the finest in all of Austria. Inside, the church is high Baroque on a human scale with a hundred putti hovering above the altar. The Baroque cloister houses unique theater sets portraying scenes of the Holy Sepulchre which is open to the public a week before Easter Sunday. Don't miss climbing the few steps just beside the church entrance to walk out onto the balcony overlooking the Danube.

Marking the end of the Wachau is Krems, which dates back to 995. Krems and the neighboring town of Stein are joined together by the small village of Und ("and" in English); together they are known as Krems-Und-Stein. These three connected towns contain more than 750 old houses, 400 of which were built before 1800. Their styles range from Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque and Biedermeier. The distinctive medieval Steiner Tor (town gate) was constructed in the 15th century as part of the town's fortifications.

Krems has long been important in the region and was once extremely rich. Because Krems had the right of staple, its ruling class was able to extract heavy fees from the traffic going up and down the Danube. Those who could not pay had their cargo confiscated.

In addition to its many fine buildings, Krems has two churches of interest as well as a town museum. St. Veit is one of Austria's earliest Baroque churches. It was built in the 17th century on the foundations of a former church from the 12th century. Parts of the Gothic Piaristen Church on the hill date back to the 15th century. An unusual roofed flight of stone steps leads up to it.

The former 13th century Dominican monastery houses an excellent town museum. Displays of many fine Gothic religious statues, a replica of "Fanny" vom Galgenberg that is estimated to be 32,000 years old, and fascinating exhibits covering the history of viticulture in the Wachau since the days of the Roman empire make a stop here a must.

WHILE THE VENUS OF WILLENDORF now resides in Vienna's Natural History Museum, her former home in the Wachau remains one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. The Wachau can best be appreciated by spending a few hours or the day on the Danube itself. Cruise ships plowing the waters up and down the Danube provide visitors with a choice of stops along the way. There are also numerous bus tours available. Arrangements for both cruises and bus tours can be made through tourist offices in Vienna.

A trip down the Danube through the Wachau whether by boat, bus, or car, or even by bicycle along the well-maintained and very popular bicycle paths is an unforgettable pleasure for one and all.