Styrian-Lower Austrian Limestone Alps

The Styrian-Lower Austrian Limestone Alps () are the easternmost part of the

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the ...

, running from the

River Enns The Enns () is a southern tributary of the river Danube in Austria, joining northward at the city of Enns. It forms much of the border between the states of Lower Austria and Upper Austria. The Enns spans , in a flat-J-shape. It flows from its sou ...

to the

Vienna Basin The Vienna Basin (, , , Hungarian: ''Bécsi-medence'') is a geologically young tectonic burial basin and sedimentary basin in the seam area between the Alps, the Carpathians and the Pannonian Plain. Although it topographically separates the Al ...

. The high Alpine, limestone massifs of the

Hochschwab The Hochschwab in the Upper Styria is a mountain, , and the highest summit in the eponymous mountain range. Location The summit of the Hochschwab is a flat, rock and grass-covered dome, that may easily be climbed from the Schiestlhaus () to ...

Veitsch Veitsch is a former municipality in the district of Bruck-Mürzzuschlag in Styria, Austria. Since the 2015 Styria municipal structural reform The Styria municipal structural reform (German: ''Steiermärkische Gemeindestrukturreform'') was a l ...

Schneealpe The Schneealpe or Schneealm is a limestone massif in the Northern Limestone Alps on the Styrian-Lower Austrian border. Its highest point is the Windberg at 1,903 metres above sea level. Other peaks are the ''Ameisbühel'' (also Amaißbichl, 1 ...

, Rax and Schneeberg belong to it as do the limestone prealps to the north as far as the

Flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building ep ...

zone. The

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

conditions in the limestone mountains make this part of the Limestone Alps a valuable drinking water reservoir, from which the Vienna Water Supply (''Wiener Wasserversorgung'') draws. The

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

Eduard Suess Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 – 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and ...

, pressed the Vienna city council for a water supply from this region as early as 1864. In 1873 the

First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline The First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline (I. Wiener Hochquellenwasserleitung) is a major part of Vienna's water supply and was the first source of safe drinking water for that city. The 95 km long line was opened on 24 October 1873, after fo ...

(''I. Wiener Hochquellenwasserleitung'') was opened, running from the Rax-Schneeberg area. The 2nd pipeline was opened in 1910 and also drew its water from the area of the Styrian-Lower Austrian Limestone Alps, being fed from sources in the Hochschwab region near

Wildalpen Wildalpen is a municipality in the district of Liezen in the Austrian state of Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's seco ...

. The largest spring is the ''Kläfferquelle'' at the foot of the

, in Styrian Salza valley. This spring supplies 860 million litres per day during the thaw, four times more than can be transported to Vienna through the pipeline. The Vienna Forestry Commission looks after the forests in the catchment area of the sources, which is a designated water protection area. Parts of the forest also belong to

Admont Abbey Admont Abbey (, ()) is a Benedictine monastery located on the Enns River in the town of Admont Admont () is a town in the Austrian state of Styria. It is historically most notable for Admont Abbey, a monastery founded in 1074. Gesäuse Nat ...

. Mountain ranges of Styria Mountain ranges of Lower Austria {{LowerAustria-geo-stub