The Taffa flows through Horn, a town in the Horner Basin in the Waldviertel. Two notable landmarks of the town’s history are the largely preserved 14th-century town walls and the Museum Horn. The walls run mostly around the three-sided main square. In Horn, a tangible connection to the landscape meets visible traces of history.
Town history and early agriculture
The Museum Horn houses one of Austria’s largest prehistoric collections. An exhibition titled “People, Soil, Technology – 7,500 Years of Agriculture” explores the long history of agricultural work. The Museum Horn also presents the town’s history through several dedicated themes: religious history, the Horner Bund of 1608 and local folklore. The Grasel exhibition in the Grasel Tower is also part of the museum. Those interested in the town’s history will find various ways to explore it here—from early ways of life and work to local history.
Art and events at the art house
The Kunsthaus Horn is a venue for celebrations, concerts, exhibitions and workshops. Since 1989, it has been home to cultural initiatives, including the Allegro Vivo International Chamber Music Festival and a theatre festival for children and young people. The venue brings together different forms of cultural life, from music and theatre to visual art.
The art association at the Kunsthaus presents five to six contemporary art exhibitions each year. It focuses on works on and with paper, printmaking and paper objects. This gives the exhibition programme a clear thematic thread: paper is not just a material here, but is itself at the centre of the artworks. Together with the events at the Kunsthaus, this offers a varied insight into Horn’s cultural life.
Castles and historic gardens
Other historic buildings also offer discoveries of their own. Renaissance Rosenburg Castle houses magnificent, stately living quarters and a falconry museum. Visitors can watch birds of prey demonstrations and falconry on horseback there. The combination of castle rooms and falconry makes Rosenburg a destination that appeals to different interests in architecture and live demonstrations.
Greillenstein Castle is located in Röhrenbach, Lower Austria, in the district of Horn. It was first mentioned as a fortified castle in 1313 and is closely associated with the Kuefstein noble family. It opened to the public as a museum in the 1960s. The gardens also tell the story of different eras: they were revitalised in the 18th century with Baroque influences and retain historic avenues and balustrades. The gardens also include a “dwarf garden”.
Landscape and outdoor activities
Since 2017, the north tower of the castle in Gars has offered a viewing platform overlooking a centuries-old cultural landscape. In summer, the castle’s large inner courtyard becomes an open-air stage for opera performances, with room for up to 1,250 guests. A historic viewpoint and a seasonal open-air cultural programme sit side by side here.
For activities on the water, Gars offers leisure options such as beach volleyball, horse riding, tennis and kayaking on the Kamp. The Gars am Kamp leisure pool has a 520-square-metre sports pool, a 293-square-metre leisure pool, a 24-square-metre children’s pool and a 58-metre-long slide. The swimming season is seasonal. In Rosenburg-Mold, there are marked cycling and hiking trails, guided river hikes, and paddle and rowing boat rentals. So, alongside sightseeing, there are trails and outdoor activities to choose from.
The 132-hectare Geras Nature Park offers the chance to observe fallow and red deer, aurochs, herons, storks and carp. The Thaya-Kamp Trail 631 offers a different view of the landscape: it leads to the roughly 70-hectare Kaidling woodland clearing, at whose eastern end there is a panoramic view of the Horner Basin. Geras Abbey, founded around 1150, adds to the cultural attractions with permanent and changing exhibitions, events and seminars. Depending on your interests, you can explore the landscape, enjoy outdoor activities or discover local culture.
Discover more destinations: Sankt Marein, Horn, Gars Am Kamp, Geras, Eggenburg, Maria Dreieichen, Rosenburg, Röschitz, Straning-Grafenberg, Meiseldorf, Klein-Reinprechtsdorf, Sigmundsherberg, Langau, Messern.
Return to the main travel overview: Lower Austria.
