Why this ride
143 km from Aggsbach to Aggsbach, about 2 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: St. Lorenz - Wachtturm, Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert, Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich and Traismauer - Kleinkastell.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
143 km from Aggsbach to Aggsbach, about 2 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: St. Lorenz - Wachtturm, Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert, Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich and Traismauer - Kleinkastell.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Wachau Danube Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Wachau is the most beautiful stretch of the Danube in Austria, a narrow valley between Melk and Krems where the river winds between steep hills covered in vineyards and forest, with castles, abbeys and villages on its banks. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site in its own right. Near the village of Aggsbach, on the southern bank, a small Roman watchtower stood in the Blashausgraben, a side valley, as part of the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Blashausgraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Blashausgraben - Wachtturm is where the day begins. Next is St. Lorenz - Wachtturm, 21 km on.
On the quiet south bank of the Danube in the Wachau, opposite the wine village of Weißenkirchen, the little church of St. Lorenz has a secret in its walls. Part of the building stands on, and incorporates, the masonry of a Roman watchtower, one of a chain of small fortifications that guarded the river frontier of the province of Noricum in late antiquity. The Danube was the edge of the empire here, and soldiers in the tower kept watch over the far bank for raiders. Today the site is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Danube Limes listing, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete St. Lorenz - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Lorenz - Wachtturm comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert.
Traismauer is a small wine town on the south side of the Danube, just where the Traisen river comes down from the Alpine foothills to meet the big river, and it has been a fortified place for something like eighteen centuries. The Romans called their fort here Augustianis, one link in the chain of camps and watchtowers that guarded the frontier of the province of Noricum. In 2021 the Danube Limes was added to the UNESCO list, and Traismauer is one of the places where you can still see the old walls doing a job.
Read the complete Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert. Next is Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich.
In the fifth century, as Roman authority along the Danube collapsed, a holy man named Severinus lived at a place called Favianis, organising food supplies, ransoming captives and negotiating with barbarian kings on behalf of the remaining Roman population. His biography, written by his disciple Eugippius, is one of the most vivid accounts of the end of Roman rule in central Europe, and Favianis is generally identified with Mautern, a small town on the south bank of the Danube opposite Krems. The Roman fort here, parts of which survive in the town walls, is part of the Danube Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich, about halfway. Next is Traismauer - Kleinkastell.
Traismauer is a small town with a very long memory. Before it was a market town on the Traisen river, it was the Roman fort of Augustianis, one of the posts on the Noricum stretch of the Danube frontier, and some of the Roman wall still stands in the town. The Kleinkastell, the small fort, is part of that chain: a compact stone enclosure, a few watchtowers and a garrison, one of the many modest strongpoints that made the limes more than a line on a map.
Read the complete Traismauer - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Traismauer - Kleinkastell sits at 82 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert. Next is back through St. Lorenz - Wachtturm, 21 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Lorenz - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through St. Lorenz - Wachtturm, late in the day. Next is Blashausgraben - Wachtturm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blashausgraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 143 km.
Blashausgraben - Wachtturm → St. Lorenz - Wachtturm is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St. Lorenz - Wachtturm → Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert → Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich → Traismauer - Kleinkastell is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Traismauer - Kleinkastell → back through Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mautern - Kastell Ostbereich → back through Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Traismauer - Kastell südwestlicher Fächert → back through St. Lorenz - Wachtturm is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through St. Lorenz - Wachtturm → Blashausgraben - Wachtturm is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.