Vorau: Abbey, Literary Trail and Walking Routes

Vorau combines the history of its abbey with literary traces, routes through forests and meadows, and eastern Styrian cuisine. The range of themes makes it possible to plan your stay around your own interests: you can focus on historic interiors and museums, follow a narrative trail or spend time outdoors. When choosing your destination, you can already consider what mix of culture and activity suits your holiday days.

Vorau Abbey: History and Interiors

Vorau Abbey was founded in 1163. The present-day abbey complex, however, was built in the 17th and 18th centuries. The founding date and the construction period therefore describe two different chapters in its history: one dates back to the Middle Ages, while the other shaped the complex as it stands today. This distinction in time helps put the abbey’s long history and its later architectural form into context.

Guided tours include the church, the sacristy and the library. If you would like to see these interiors, plan your visit around a tour and check the current dates in advance. Another cultural stop is also located within the abbey grounds: the Sub Terra Vorau Museum is housed in the Waldlturm. When planning, you can therefore take several places in the abbey’s surroundings into account without treating the guided tour and the museum as if they covered the same subject.

Literary Stops and Routes Outdoors

The Vorau Literary Trail connects the abbey with the market town of Vorau in six stops. It retells the “Vorau Novella” and is illustrated with images from medieval manuscripts. The focus here is a literary story that unfolds across several stops. This sets the trail apart from a route whose destination or course is shaped mainly by the landscape.

The Augustiniweg is defined by its named waypoints: it leads from the Canons Regular monastery via Schafleitn and Amtmann Höhe to the Masenberg. The Dörflweg offers a different experience. It runs along short stretches of road, through forests and across meadows, leads to viewpoints and then returns to Griesplatz in the town centre. This gives you a clear distinction when choosing: the Augustiniweg leads to the Masenberg, while the Dörflweg returns to Griesplatz.

Rural Home Culture and Regional Cuisine

The Vorau Open-Air Museum includes the “Marotti” Rauchstubenhaus, dating from 1706. It displays the complete furnishings of a typical eastern Styrian farmhouse. This adds a different cultural perspective to that of the abbey complex: here, the focus is on the furnishings of a farmhouse. If you are interested in historic buildings, you can explore the abbey’s history and rural home culture as distinct themes during your stay.

Regional cuisine offers another local highlight. Brettljause is part of eastern Styrian cuisine and is available at Most taverns and Buschenschänken. You can consider whether this combination suits your travel plans when deciding on Vorau.

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Go to the main travel overview: Hartberg-Fürstenfeld.