Gesäuse National Park

Founded in 2002, the Gesäuse National Park in Upper Styria protects one of Austria's wildest mountain landscapes, where the Enns cuts deep into the steep limestone walls of the Gesäuse mountains. Golden eagles, chamois and rare plants live here. White water, via ferratas and scenic trails make the park a destination for nature lovers.

Highlights

• Deeply cut Enns valley with steep limestone walls
• Golden eagles, chamois and rare flora
• White-water sections on the Enns
• Via ferratas and mountain trails

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

The Gesäuse National Park in northern Styria owes its sonorous name to the roaring of the Enns, which forces its way here through the rock of the Ennstal Alps in a wild gorge. The old word gesäuse derives from the rushing and roaring of the water, for over a few kilometres the river plunges between vertical rock faces and remains to this day one of the most demanding white-water stretches of the Eastern Alps. Above the waters rise limestone massifs such as the Hochtor, whose rugged faces became early on a cradle of Styrian mountaineering.

In 2002 the area was declared a national park, one of the younger ones in Austria, dedicated to the protection of a wilderness shaped by water and rock. Steep mountain forest, flower-rich alpine pastures and rugged rock regions lie here layered above one another in the closest space, a habitat for chamois, golden eagles and rare plants. The leitmotif of the park sums up the character of the landscape: where water meets rock, that primeval dynamic arises which has always made the Gesäuse a place of longing for hikers, climbers and nature lovers.