Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape and Carnuntum - Legionslager
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
240 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 05
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.
From Mörbisch am See it runs 240 km to Mörbisch am See; allow about 4 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube, Rusovce - Gerulata, Carnuntum - Legionslager and back through Rusovce - Gerulata. It crosses from Austria into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Scenic road chapters
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape → Frontiers of the Roman Empi
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 61 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
Length
56 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape
The Neusiedler See, Fertő in Hungarian, is a strange lake. It is huge, over three hundred square kilometres of water stretching from Austria across the border into Hungary, but almost nowhere is it deeper than a couple of metres, and a vast belt of reeds surrounds much of it, so that from many places you cannot actually see the water. It has no natural outflow, its level depends on rain and evaporation, and in the 1860s it dried out completely for several years, with farmers ploughing the lakebed. The lake and the villages around it were listed by UNESCO in 2001 as a cultural landscape shaped by thousands of years of human life on the border between Alpine and steppe worlds.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube.
2. Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube
Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher, spent several years at Carnuntum during his wars against the Germanic tribes north of the Danube, and he is thought to have written part of his Meditations here; the third book carries the note that it was written at Carnuntum. In the second century, this was one of the most important places on the Roman frontier: a legionary fortress, an auxiliary fort and a civil town that grew into the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, with tens of thousands of inhabitants. Today, the archaeological park at Petronell-Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg shows reconstructed houses, a bath and streets built using Roman methods, two amphitheatres, and the Heidentor, a great ruined triumphal arch standing alone in the fields. The Danube Limes became a World Heritage site in 2021.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rusovce - Gerulata.
3. Rusovce - Gerulata
Three countries meet in the fields south of Bratislava, and the Romans had a fort here long before anybody drew those borders. Gerulata was an auxiliary fort on the Danube frontier, in what is now Rusovce, a district at the southern edge of the Slovak capital. Its remains have been excavated, and a small museum displays foundations and finds, from coins to pottery and gravestones. The site is part of the Danube Limes listed by UNESCO, a frontier that ran from Germany to the Black Sea.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Rusovce - Gerulata. Next is Carnuntum - Legionslager.
4. Carnuntum - Legionslager
Carnuntum was a Roman city, a legionary base and, for a time, a capital. The Fourteenth Legion, the Gemina, was stationed here from the first century, and the camp, with its great barracks and parade ground, guarded a crossing of the Danube where the Amber Road from the Baltic met the river. By the second century it was the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, with an amphitheatre, baths and a population of tens of thousands. The emperor Marcus Aurelius is said to have spent part of the German wars here, and tradition holds that he wrote some of his Meditations in the camp.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape closes the day.
Leg by leg
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape to Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape → Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube to Rusovce - Gerulata
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube → Rusovce - Gerulata is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rusovce - Gerulata to Carnuntum - Legionslager
Rusovce - Gerulata → Carnuntum - Legionslager is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carnuntum - Legionslager to back through Rusovce - Gerulata
Carnuntum - Legionslager → back through Rusovce - Gerulata is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rusovce - Gerulata to back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube
back through Rusovce - Gerulata → back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube to Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube → Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.