A late Baroque round chapel, a lake formed by a landslide, and an open-air museum with traces of flax processing reveal different sides of Sankt Anton an der Jessnitz. The area also includes Ötscher-Tormäuer Nature Park, marked hiking trails, and an observatory near the Hochbärneck alpine lodge. This gives you a choice when planning your trip between local history, landscape, and specific hiking routes.
Churches and Local History
The parish church of St. Anton was dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua in 1691. The Way of the Cross leads from the church to Antoniusbründl and continues to Calvary Hill. Its twelfth station is a large late Baroque round chapel built in 1737. The dates mark different events: 1691 for the church’s dedication and 1737 for the chapel’s construction.
The open-air museum in Reifgraben brings together a historic granary, a mill, and a drying house with a flax-processing room known as the Brechhäusl. Flax was once dried in the drying house and then processed further in the flax room. The exhibition in the Bruderlade currently focuses on working life and everyday life on the threshold of the industrial age. Its themes include the lives of farmers and craftspeople, as well as festivals and customs, food and drink, fashion, and religion. This places different aspects of everyday life alongside former work processes.
Landscape and Stargazing
Lake Antonisee was formed by a landslide in 1910. Ötscher-Tormäuer Nature Park also extends into the municipality of Sankt Anton an der Jessnitz. The municipality therefore has both a lake notable for its origins and a share of this nature park.
The Hochbärneck Astrostation is an observatory near the Hochbärneck alpine lodge, in the heart of Ötscher-Tormäuer Nature Park. From there, the view sweeps across extensive alpine pastures to the 1,893-metre-high Ötscher. Low light pollution makes the area suitable for astronomical observations. For travellers interested in astronomy, the viewpoint and observatory are combined here, without requiring a specific observation date.
Hiking and Getting Around
Sankt Anton an der Jessnitz has 100 kilometres of marked hiking trails. Before setting out on a specific hike, check which trails are currently marked. One family-friendly circular route is 7 kilometres long; with suitable footwear, the walk takes about three hours. The distance and approximate walking time provide a concrete basis for planning a single loop.
The Via Aqua offers a different scale: this 75-kilometre circular hiking route passes through Purgstall, Scheibbs, Gaming, and Sankt Anton an der Jessnitz. Over four or five stages, it takes you to places along the Erlauf, the Eisenstraße, and in Ötscher-Tormäuer Nature Park. This distinguishes a longer, multi-stage route through four municipalities from a single circular hike with a specified duration.
The “In the Footsteps of Adreas Töpper” discovery trail also combines exercise with local history. Three presentation points and additional information panels explore the origins of historic buildings and share facts about the village and its distinctive features. For travel by public transport, bus route MO22 is among the services listed for Sankt Anton. Check the current timetable before travelling.
Discover more destinations: Gaming, Lassing, Oberamt, Göstling An Der Ybbs, Lunz Am See, Hochreit, Schliefau, Puchenstuben.
For the wider travel overview: Scheibbs.
