Enns - Legionslager Zentralbereich and Blashausgraben - Wachtturm
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
207 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 04
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
207 km from Enns to Enns, about 3 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Wallsee - Kastell, Ybbs - Kleinkastell, Blashausgraben - Wachtturm and back through Ybbs - Kleinkastell. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Enns - Legionslager Zentralbereich → Wallsee - Kastell for 26 km.
Chapter facts
Length
26 km
Wachau Danube Road
For about 31 km this is Wachau Danube Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
Length
31 km
Named road
Wachau Danube Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Enns - Legionslager Zentralbereich
Where the little River Enns joins the Danube, about twenty kilometres upstream of Linz, the Romans built their frontier. This was Lauriacum, headquarters of the Second Italic Legion, who were stationed here from the late second century to guard the northern edge of the empire, the province of Noricum, against the tribes beyond the river. Around the fortress grew a civilian town that at its height may have held many thousands of people, and later a bishop is said to have lived here. The modern town of Enns, which takes pride in being the oldest in Austria, grew up beside it, and the legionary camp lay under what is now a mix of fields, streets and suburbs.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Enns - Legionslager Zentralbereich is where the day begins. Next is Wallsee - Kastell.
2. Wallsee - Kastell
Wallsee is one of those Danube villages that people cycle through on the long riverside path without guessing how much history sits under their tyres. A castle rises on a rock above the river, and beneath and around the village lie the remains of a Roman fort that guarded this stretch of the Danube frontier. It is part of the Danube Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021, which follows the river from Bavaria through Austria to Slovakia, a line of forts, watchtowers and towns that held the northern edge of the empire for centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wallsee - Kastell comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ybbs - Kleinkastell.
3. Ybbs - Kleinkastell
Ybbs an der Donau and Persenbeug face each other across the Danube in Lower Austria, connected by a hydroelectric dam that was one of the first built on the Austrian Danube after the war. Persenbeug is dominated by its castle, perched on a rock above the river, which belonged to the Habsburgs and was the birthplace of Emperor Charles I, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. On the Ybbs side, the remains of a small Roman fort have been found, part of the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Ybbs - Kleinkastell. Next is Blashausgraben - Wachtturm.
4. Blashausgraben - Wachtturm
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.