The best traffic-free bike rides around Zwettl-Niederösterreich

The historic old town of Zwettl in the Waldviertel captivates with medieval city walls, colorful baroque facades, and the colorful Hundertwasser fountain on the main square. Highlights include the Old Town Hall with its city museum, the striking Antonturm, and the nearby Zwettl Abbey (Cistercian monastery).

No Merlot here — the shelf stands empty, quiet, waiting for a bottle that never comes. Kein Merlot hier — das Regal bleibt leer, still, wartend auf eine Flasche, die nie kommt. Pas de Merlot ici — l'étagère reste vide, silencieuse, attendant une bouteille qui n'arrive jamais. No hay Merlot aquí — el estante queda vacío, silencioso, esperando una botella que nunca llega.

After historical decay, the complex was extensively renovated in the 20th century through private initiative and saved from ruin status. As it is privately owned, it can usually only be viewed from the outside.

Otherwise only released for agricultural vehicles

The municipal authorities succeeded in winning over Master Hundertwasser to plan and build a fountain system in the main square. The presentation of the fountain model met with great approval from the people of Zwettl, but also with vehement rejection. In 1994, the fountain system, consisting of three main elements – the two fountain columns with collecting basins and the pavilion – was handed over to the public. It has since been a popular meeting point in the heart of the city. Friedensreich Hundertwasser died in February 2000 at the age of 71.

Until the end of the 19th century, a monumental public fountain stood in the middle of the main square, the terminus of the oldest Zwettl water pipeline dating back to the early 17th century; a place where the population met, not just to fetch water. In 1925, a war memorial was erected here, and from the mid-20th century onwards, the square in the heart of the city was primarily used as a parking area. In the early 1990s, the municipality of Zwettl decided to redesign the main square. The aim was to give the city an attractive center again and thus preserve the tradition of the old Zwettl main square for the present and the future. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, born Friedrich Stowasser in 1928, had owned an old mill on the banks of the Kamp river above Zwettl since the 1970s.

Originally, after the town's founding, Trinity Square was part of Zwettl's main square, which at that time stretched as an extensive triangular plaza from the townhouses behind the Hundertwasser Fountain to the level of the Hausleitner house above the "Zur Goldenen Rose" inn. The construction of houses along the lower Landstraße, the so-called "Grätzl," significantly narrowed the main square, and the addition of the cross street eventually divided it into two squares.

During the Baroque period, people everywhere were eager to express their gratitude for overcoming the plague years and the Turkish Wars by erecting plague or Trinity columns. In 1727, the pillory in the upper square was replaced by the richly sculpted sandstone column created by Kaspar Högl of Eggenburg. During the last renovation in 1998, extensive environmental damage to the figures was repaired, and the entire column was painted a light yellow. The four life-size statues are, in the center at the front, the Immaculate Conception; to her left, St. Sebastian (pierced by five arrows); to her right, St. Roch (pointing to the plague boil on his thigh); and St. Florian (holding a flag in one hand and a bucket of water in the other). The iron fountain in the immediate vicinity of the Trinity Column is a gift from the then-mayor, Eugen Beck, of the twin town of Plochingen near Stuttgart.