Circular route Eckartsau – National Park Donau-Auen

The Eckartsau circular trail shows you a completely different floodplain forest than in Schönau or Orth, for example. The oxbows are not connected to the Danube, but are supplied by groundwater. This is why reed beds have developed and offer a wide variety of water birds breeding opportunities. Water lilies, arrowheads, water hemlock and swan flowers, among others, thrive in the standing waters.

The four-kilometer-long circular trail begins in the historic landscape park of Eckartsau Castle. You first walk over a stone bridge over the Fadenbach, an oxbow with reedy banks where moorhens hide. You follow the wide forest road to the protective dam, from where a new oxbow extends northwards, where you can spot pond turtles and gray herons. In the warm season, young cattle graze on a former field.

On the way back you pass another pasture and a branch of the Fadenbach. The last watering hole is the old Eckartsau bath, where the rare dogfish has found one of its retreats. Back in the castle park, you should definitely take a guided tour of the entire Eckartsau castle.

Some hiking trails near Orth an der Donau and Eckartsau in the sections between the castle and the Marchfeld dam, as well as the Stopfenreuther Uferstraße, can be used by wheelchair when the weather is suitable.