Art, meditation and great views: A walk to the lookout tower of Engabrunn, Austria

Some days ago I had a wonderful walk in the vineyards of Engabrunn, a small village that belongs to the community of Grafenegg in Lower Austria.

My starting point of this walk has been the late medieval church of Engabrunn.

The church is sacrified to Holy Sebastian. The church itself is gothic, but the altar is neogothic and only a little bit more than 100 years old.

From the church I walked up north the Weinbergstraße (vineyard street). In this street you can see several wine estates and wine cellars.

Right after the last houses in this street, you can see the "Skulpturenriede" on the right side of the street. "Riede" is an Austrian expression that's quite hard to explain. It is a smaller entity within a wine-growing area, for example the southern part of a hill, not the whole hill. A "Riede" itself can contain various different vineyards that often belong to different vintners.

This "Skulpturenriede" was built between 2003 and 2006 and can be explained as a small sculpture park within the vineyards. Various artists, mainly artists from the region like Fritz Gall created theses sculptures.

On the left side of the street you can enter the "Weg des guten Gesprächs" ("Way of good talk"). This is a small meditation area in a small piece of woodland. Various signs ask things you should think and meditate about. This sign for example asks you what has been the last nice word that made you happy.

There are also places to relax and meditate on this "Way of good talk". This meditation area has been the idea of Susanne Mauss, pedagogue and mediator - and daughter of vintners who live and work in Engabrunn.

After the sculpture park and the meditation park you reach the ridge of the hill and turn right. Some minutes later you pass the "Festplatz", the festival area used by the local volunteer fire brigade and the local Brass orchestra.

At the festival place you can also find a small chapel and a playground for children.

About 100 meters more walk and you reach the final destination of this walk, the lookout tower. It was erected in 2004 and is about 10 meters high.

From the lookout tower you have a wonderful view through the vineyards. Far away you can see the first mountains of the Alps.

The way as described is about 1.7 kilometers in one direction. Depending on how much time you need to look at the sculptures, meditate, play on the playground or enjoy the view from the lookout tower you will need between 45 minutes or some hours for this walk.

Of course, you can extend your walk to much longer walks throught the vineyards.

A detailled German description can be found [on my weblog schmatz.blog)(https://www.schmatz.cc/trips/engabrunn-kunst-meditation-und-fernsicht/) and I also want to invite you to join me on instagram and follow me on BeScounted, a steemit-based photo community! Thank you!

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