Perg between millstone tradition, the Danube and hiking trails

Those looking for accommodation in Perg will find a destination with an unusually wide range of opportunities to experience culture, nature and outdoor activities. The town and its district combine the history of millstone production with museums, castles, river landscapes and designated trails. It is therefore worthwhile to define the main focus of your stay at an early stage: industrial heritage, archaeological insights, historic buildings, hikes or relaxation by the water.

Culture among millstones, castles and pharmacy history

The Heimathaus Stadtmuseum Perg documents the history of Perg and its surrounding area. Its main topics include the stone and millstone industry, which was of great importance to Perg, excavations from the Auhof burial ground dating from the 8th to the 10th century, and finds from Mitterberg Castle. Since 2004, it has also been home to the permanent exhibition “Kätes Puppenwelt”, featuring more than 400 exhibits.

The millstone tradition can be experienced particularly vividly at the Steinbrecherhaus Millstone Museum. Images, stone objects and tools document the work of the stone breakers. The museum includes a stone-breaker’s house built in 1802, where visitors can view a living room, a chamber and a smoke kitchen. The tradition of the Perg millstone cutters had great importance far beyond the region from the Middle Ages onward. In the best periods, up to 2,000 millstones were extracted in the Perg millstone quarries and sold throughout the monarchy and beyond.

The Scherer quarry is an open-air museum operated by the Stadtmuseum Perg on the grounds of a disused sandstone quarry in Perg. The sandstone there formed from sand deposited on the shore of a sea in what is now the Machland Plain during the Tertiary period, 30 to 40 million years ago. The Pharmacy Museum in Pragstein Castle offers a different historical perspective: it presents the history of the Austrian pharmacy system and the practical work of pharmacists in the laboratory. Its foundation is the collection on the history of pharmacy belonging to the Aichberger family of pharmacists, which documents in particular the development of small rural pharmacies.

Historical destinations can also be found outside Perg. The former Baumgartenberg collegiate church combines Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements. Construction began in 1142, and it was given its Baroque form in the 17th century; guided tours of the church are offered. Clam Castle was first mentioned in documents in 1128, was owned by the Lords of Machland around 1149, and has been in the possession of the Counts of Clam-Martinic family since 1454. The castle museum offers guided tours featuring an armoury, a Gothic chapel dating from 1491 and a porcelain collection.

Landscape, water and trails in Perg District

In Perg District, the landscape in the north extends from the strongly varied mountains and hills through intermediate elevations with enclosed basins, such as the Klam Basin, to the Danube plains. Along the district’s eastern boundary and beyond as far as Ybbs, the Danube forms the Strudengau: a 25-kilometre-long breakthrough valley between steeply descending, densely forested slopes and the river. The Stillsteinklamm gorge and other narrow breakthrough valleys are also among the valleys cut by rivers and streams into the foothills of the granite massif on their way to the Danube.

A variety of landscapes are available for walks and hikes. The “PERGER Nature Experience Areas” connect ecologically valuable biotopes with vegetation suited to the location along a circular trail. Wolf Gorge has been a nature and cultural hiking trail since 1997. It is a gorge-like ravine through ancient bedrock at the foot of Kreuzen Castle, featuring waterfalls, rock formations, block castles, botanical and faunal special features, and near-natural ravine forests. Information boards there explain the bathing facilities of the former Bad Kreuzen cold-water sanatorium.

The Donausteig trail offers two clearly described stages connected with Perg. Stage 4_G03 leads from Mauthausen through the cultivated Machland Plain and across the panoramic hills of the Mühlviertel to Perg on the northern edge of the Machland. Stage 4_G04 begins at the “Perg” Donausteig trailhead in the northeastern part of the main square and ends at the “Mitterkirchen” trailhead at the northern end of the sports field near the eastern edge of the village. A bicycle tour from Perg to Grein uses the “Keltendorf” open-air museum in Mitterkirchen as a place to stop and for an excursion into the past.

Excursion destinations for a range of interests

The Mitterkirchen Celtic Village opened in 1991 near the site of an earlier archaeological excavation of a Hallstatt-period burial site and currently has 20 buildings. Supervised activities are offered especially for school classes, including pottery, flatbread baking, weaving, spinning, building log cabins, metalworking and bow building. Since 2011, the “Chariots of Splendour and Millet Porridge” Archaeotechnology Days have been held regularly, during which experimental archaeologists live in the Celtic village.

On warm days, the Perg Forest Pool offers a river swimming area with a sunbathing lawn, inviting visitors to relax in summer. Its facilities include a beach volleyball court, an asphalt curling lane and a Kneipp facility. The Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial provides a more contemplative focus, with information about its exhibitions and memorial sites at former satellite camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp system. A free audio guide app is available for Android and iOS in 12 languages.

Perg is also an important transport hub for the district; railways, the federal road and the bypass connect it in an east-west direction. For regional orientation, you can also consider Henndorf and Dimbach. For comparing other destinations, you can also consider Gmunden District, Freistadt, Steyr-Land, Kirchdorf An Der Krems, Rohrbach and Vöcklabruck.

For the broader travel overview: Upper Austria.