Nockberge

The Nockberge are an unusually gentle mountain group shaped by rounded grass summits and form the Nockberge Biosphere Park. The Nockalm Road winds as a panoramic toll road in many hairpins over the alpine pastures. Marmots, alpine farming and wide trails shape the quiet area.

Highlights

• Gentle, rounded grass summits (Nocken)
• Nockalm Road as a panoramic toll road
• Biosphere park with alpine farming
• Marmots and wide trails

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

The Nockberge in Carinthia are among the most peculiar mountain ranges in the Alps, for instead of rugged rocky summits they bear gently rounded, grass-covered domes, called Nocken in dialect, hence the name. They owe these unusually soft forms to their ancient crystalline rock, which is considerably older than the rugged limestone massifs of the northern Limestone Alps and was ground round under the weight of the ice ages. Across the fertile alpine pastures shepherds have driven their cattle for centuries, and the dome-shaped landscape still shapes the picture of an almost gentle high mountain world.

In 1987 the area was first placed under protection as a national park, before it was later converted into a biosphere park that combines the protection of nature with traditional alpine pasture farming. Through the heart of the region runs the Nockalmstraße, a winding panoramic road that swings over the rounded heights in countless hairpin bends and opens up a species-rich mountain world to hikers and nature lovers alike. Here rare alpine plants bloom, marmots and golden eagles trace their paths, and the wide view over the green domes lets one sense why the Nockberge are considered the gentlest high mountains of the Eastern Alps.