contents 1 land & lives .................................. 2 barrier free ............................... 63 The Bregenzerwald 2 Barrier-free rambling 64 For your orientation 4 Barrier-free viewing experience 66 Living space 6 Bregenzerwald Guest Card 8 culture ......................................... 67 Cable cars 9 Architecture 68 Swimming pools 10 Bregenzerwald Werkraum 70 Journeys to architecture and hiking ........................................... 11 the culture of wood 72 Things to know 12 Experiencing energy 74 Panoramic routes 14 bus:stop Krumbach 75 Alp paths 19 Everyday culture 76 Summit tours 23 Schubertiade Schwarzenberg 78 Water routes 25 Bregenz Festival 79 Cultural tours 28 Exhibitions & museums 81 Hiking with dogs 32 Cabaret & culture 84 active summer ............................ 33 dining out ................................... 87 Mountain biking & cycling 34 Bregenzerwald culinary Mountain biking 35 delights region 88 Cycling 38 KäseStrasse 90 Climbing 40 BERGGUT – good things from Rope Parks 42 the Bregenzerwald 91 Mountain- and watersport 43 Culinary hikes 92 Archery 44 Exceptional specialties 93 Paragliding 45 Feasting in the Bregenzerwald 96 Fishing grounds 46 Bregenzerwald Golf Park 50 well-being ................................... 97 Health hotels 98 family tips ................................... 51 Wellness hotels 99 Rambling with the pram 52 Water and Moor 101 Kids’ programme 56 Care products 102 Dairy farming up close 61 Day trip tips – Around Vorarlberg .......................................103 Lake Constance 62 How to reach Vorarlberg, Public buses and taxis ................104 2 the bregenzerwald To start with, let us introduce you to Sensitive the Bregenzerwald. Around 30,000 Many of the hotels, guest houses and people live here, in 22 villages in farms combine the old with the new, total. The Bregenzerwald locals – or have been completely rebuilt with “Wälder” as they are known – are sensitivity in recent years. Wood confident, independent people, plays an essential part in all this. In proud of their roots yet receptive to the well-tended inns and restaurants, new things too. the chefs are masters of pepping up regional specialities, making them You will notice the successful, into magnificent creations. Most of courageous blend of the traditional the produce used comes from local and the modern when you look at farms. They are all small farms, the architecture and experience and are managed carefully and the craftsmanship. Both disciplines imaginatively by families. The best- are closely interwoven, and are a known Bregenzer wald speciality is symbol of that which the locals cheese, especially the tasty alpine of the Bregenzerwald are experts cheese. The informative stations and in: appreciation of art, of beauty, delight­­ful events of the KäseStrasse the creation of pleasure, both well Bregenzerwald impart impressions thought-out and practical. of cheese culture. This interplay is both visible and perceptible in many places. the bregenzerwald 3 land & lives hiking active summer Klausberg mountain pasture, Schwarzenberg Inspired Informative For a rural region, the cultural calen- This brochure is your companion on dar in the Bregenzerwald is anything your journey of discovery through tipsfamily but provincial! The major festival the Bregenzerwald. It contains in the region is the Schubertiade numerous addresses – from sights Schwarzenberg. Many guests com- and day-trip destinations – and a bine visits to the Bregenz Festival – multitude of tips for stimulating known for its spectacular opera leisure activities: from selected thematic hiking paths through performances on the lake stage – barrier free with holidays in the Bregenzerwald. to outdoor and family- orientated programmes, right through to Soothing pampering wellness days offered by The Bregenzerwald landscapes are some of the hotels. We also inform balsam for the eye – and the soul. you about the highlights awaiting A shapely combination of gently you in our cultural calendar, the undulating hills, expansive special features of our architecture culture plate aux, romantic river valleys and and craftsmanship, and share with impressive peaks – ideal for active you interesting facts about culinary people and lovers of nature. The delights and the Bregenzerwald farmers are largely responsible for cheese culture. the maintenance and upkeep of the cultivated landscape. Typical of the dining out Bregenzerwald is the three-layer cultivation of the fields: (valley – mountain pasture – high mountain pasture). well-being 4 for your orientation Widderstein Karhorn Zitterklapfen 2533 m 2416 m Glatthorn 2403 m Zafernhorn 2134m Mohnenfluh Braunarlspitze 2107 m 2544 m 2649 m Lechtal Innsbruck Lech Hochkünzelspitze Allgäuer Alpen Reutte 2397 m Saloberkopf Lech WARTH Portlahorn 1495 m 2010 m Hoher Ifen 2230 m Faschina 1486 m Diedamskopf Uga 2090 m Hochtannberg 1850 m 1676 m Körbersee Ragazer DAMÜLS Blanken SCHRÖCKEN 2051 m 1260 m 1431 m Au Kanisfluh Mittagsspitze 2044 m 2095 m Hochblanken SCHOPPERNAU 2068 m 860 m Schönenbach 1025 m Hirschberg 1834 m AU Wildgunten 800 m 1705 m Damüls Roßstelle Winterstaude 1391 m 1877 m SIBRATSGFÄLL 929 m SCHNEPFAU Niedere 734 m 1711 m Baumgarten Hoher Freschen 1620 m Balderschwang (D) 2004 m BIZAU 681 m MELLAU 688 m Sonderdach 1208 m REUTHE 650 m Hochhäderich 1566 m SCHETTEREGG 1066 m BEZAU Hochälpelekopf 650 m 1463 m ANDELSBUCH 613 m BERSBUCH HITTISAU Brüggelekopf 612 m 790 m EGG Staufen GROSSDORF 1182 m 1465 m 662 m 564 m Hochlitten Koyen Tannerberg 971 m 1300 m LINGENAU BÖDELE MÜSELBACH SCHWARZENBERG KRUMBACH 687 m 700 m 1139 m 733 m 585 m Dresslerberg RIEFENSBERG LANGENEGG 781 m Karren 695 m 976 m Aach (D) SULZBERG DOREN Oberstaufen (D) 1015 m 709 m ALBERSCHWENDE 721 m Oberreute (D) Buch 725 m DORNBIRN 475 m Hirschberg Thal 1095 m LANGEN 598 m 657 m Bildstein 760 m Fluh 730 m Kennelbach SCHWARZACH Dornbirn Pfänder Dornbirn 1062 m 438 m Süd WOLFURT Nord Pfänder- 412 m Feldkirch tunnel Basel (CH) Zürich (CH) St. Gallen (CH) Scheidegg BREGENZ 400 m LAUTERACH Br ege nz er ac he Lindau Hohenweiler Friedrichshafen St. Gallen München (CH) Ulm Stuttgart d e n s e Rhein (D) Lochau B o e HÖCHST for your orientation 5 land & lives Widderstein Karhorn Zitterklapfen 2533 m 2416 m Glatthorn 2403 m Zafernhorn 2134m Mohnenfluh Braunarlspitze 2107 m 2544 m 2649 m Lechtal Innsbruck Lech Hochkünzelspitze Allgäuer Alpen Reutte 2397 m Saloberkopf Lech WARTH Portlahorn 1495 m 2010 m Hoher Ifen 2230 m Faschina 1486 m Diedamskopf Uga 2090 m Hochtannberg 1850 m 1676 m Körbersee Ragazer DAMÜLS Blanken SCHRÖCKEN 2051 m 1260 m 1431 m hiking Au Kanisfluh Mittagsspitze 2044 m 2095 m Hochblanken SCHOPPERNAU 2068 m 860 m Schönenbach 1025 m Hirschberg 1834 m AU Wildgunten 800 m 1705 m active summer Damüls Roßstelle Winterstaude 1391 m 1877 m SIBRATSGFÄLL 929 m SCHNEPFAU Niedere 734 m 1711 m Baumgarten Hoher Freschen 1620 m Balderschwang (D) 2004 m BIZAU 681 m MELLAU 688 m Sonderdach 1208 m REUTHE 650 m Hochhäderich tipsfamily 1566 m SCHETTEREGG 1066 m BEZAU Hochälpelekopf 650 m 1463 m ANDELSBUCH 613 m BERSBUCH HITTISAU Brüggelekopf 612 m 790 m EGG Staufen GROSSDORF 1182 m 1465 m 662 m 564 m Hochlitten Koyen Tannerberg 971 m 1300 m LINGENAU BÖDELE MÜSELBACH SCHWARZENBERG KRUMBACH 687 m 700 m 1139 m 733 m 585 m Dresslerberg RIEFENSBERG LANGENEGG 781 m Karren barrier free 695 m 976 m Aach (D) SULZBERG DOREN Oberstaufen (D) 1015 m 709 m ALBERSCHWENDE 721 m Oberreute (D) Buch 725 m DORNBIRN 475 m Hirschberg Thal 1095 m LANGEN 598 m 657 m Bildstein 760 m Fluh 730 m Kennelbach SCHWARZACH Dornbirn culture Pfänder Dornbirn 1062 m 438 m Süd WOLFURT Nord Pfänder- 412 m Feldkirch tunnel Basel (CH) Zürich (CH) St. Gallen (CH) Scheidegg BREGENZ 400 m LAUTERACH Br ege nz er ac he Lindau Hohenweiler Friedrichshafen St. Gallen dining out München (CH) Ulm Stuttgart d e n s e Rhein (D) Lochau B o e HÖCHST well-being 6 living space Travelling the Bregenzerwald always spectrum which, right at the start of means having to overcome dizzy tourism, had travellers extolling the heights to start with: from Bregenz “charming landscape” as an “enclosed you take the Pfänder, from the Rhine park” whilst at the same time shudder- Valley the valley side which ascends ing at the “Siberian exile” on the wild, 500 m, from the north you take the upper course of the Ache. A valley area Sulzbergstock, from the east the Ried- of contrasts, borders, crossings. berg or Hochtannberg pass, from the south the Furkajoch or Faschinajoch. Crossings Cross-border experiences also leave Up and over is the way to go – the most their mark on the locals – they know impressive views are from the north how to set themselves apart from and the west – and a space is revealed outside. Yet the scarce rural areas which, in all its diversity, is completely have never been sufficient to feed different to all that surrounds it, with the population. The locals had to get the Bregenzerache uniting it all. Your moving, cross borders, leave behind route takes you through gorges and their homes and families. This took flat hollows – wide between the hills on many different forms: the nomadic of the foothills of the Alps around existence of alpine animal husbandry Alberschwende and Lingenau, narrow (home, mountain pasture, alp → between the mountains of the foothills page 89), or in the form of seasonal of the Alps around Andelsbuch and migrant work, outbound commuting Bezau, squeezed in between the alpine or even emigration (to America in the peaks of the Kanisfluh, Diedams- 19th century in particular). Flexibility, kopf, Zitterklapfen and Widderstein ideas and self-help were essential to around Schnepfau, Au, Schoppernau, stave off poverty. Warth and Schröcken. This correlates The area was only sparsely populated with the division into the Vorder- for a long time: only plot names wald, Mittelwald and Hinterwald give rise to assumptions about the (front, central and rear regions of the border between Celtic and Rhaeto- Bregenzerwald) – a topographical Romanic cultures. It was not until living space 7 land & lives hiking active summer Widderstein the High Middle Ages that Mehrerau farm school in the Habsburg Empire was established.