Grieskirchen: Castles, Trails and Brewing Culture

Grieskirchen combines rolling, fertile hills with wooded summits, historic castles and varied trails. The district lies between the foothills of the Sauwald and Hausruck forests, as well as between the Salletwald and the western edge of the Welser Heide. In the Hausruck, the highest elevation reaches 750 metres. In spring, the blossoms of numerous fruit trees shape the Landl region and give the landscape a particularly distinctive character.

Trails for walks, hikes and bike tours

Grieskirchen offers several routes of varying lengths for planning your day. The Schloss-Parz Trail runs for 4.4 kilometres from the town centre to Parz Castle and back. The Schloss-Tollet Trail is 7 kilometres long and takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes. Those who want to connect both destinations can choose the 10.2-kilometre Two-Castle Circular Trail. It leads from the centre along the Trattnach to Tollet Castle, continues to Landschloss Parz and returns to the centre via the Parz Castle Gallery.

There is also a clear option for cycling tours: the Trattnachtal Cycle Path R17 runs through Grieskirchen to Eferding, where it connects to the Danube Cycle Path. The 3-kilometre St. Georgen Fruit Tree Avenue leads from Grieskirchen to Sankt Georgen bei Grieskirchen. Along the ridge, it offers views of the Trattnach Valley and Tollet Castle and is suitable for walks. The Fit Trail in the municipality-owned woodland of Zehetholz comprises 12 stations, while the Forest Information Trail in Kickendorf presents topics relating to forests and trees on 12 information boards.

Castles and Renaissance art

The castle landscape is one of the district’s most impressive cultural features. The frescoes on the garden façade of Landschloss Parz date from around 1580 and are considered a major work of Austrian and southern German Renaissance art. The surviving cycle is around 90 metres long and more than 10 metres high. The country castle also has a Renaissance garden with terraces, octagonal beds bordered by box hedges and a variety of plantings.

Tollet Castle was first mentioned in documents in 1170 as a fortified structure. Since 1980, it has housed the district local history museum; it is also home to the Upper Austrian State Bee Museum and a waggon-maker’s museum. The Kulturama Tollet Castle Museum focuses primarily on temporary exhibitions. The Parz Castle Gallery regularly presents exhibitions featuring works by local and international artists. Another special sight is Aistersheim Water Castle, which is completely surrounded by water. Two solid wooden bridges lead to its two large entrance gates.

Town history, crafts and regional specialities

In Grieskirchen itself, the Karbrunnen fountain, commissioned by Gundaker von Polheim in 1610, is worth seeing. The octagonal basin holds 156 hectolitres of water. The parish church was first mentioned in documents in 1075 and contains an art-historical rarity from the 16th century: the tomb monument of Sigmund von Polheim and his wife Potentiana. A guided historical town tour with Hubert Krexhammer explores Grieskirchen’s history. The meeting point is the Karbrunnen fountain at Kirchenplatz; the tour takes place on the first Friday of every month.

The Peuerbach Castle Museum was completely redesigned in 2023. The former Peasant War Museum no longer exists there; since 2023, the exhibition “KOSMOS.New Worlds – Georg von Peuerbach and His Legacy” has been continued. The Peuerbach Shoemaking and Local Customs Museum showcases the traditional craft of shoemaking. For enjoyable insights, the Grieskirchen brewery offers brewery tours providing an insight into everyday brewing and production, followed by tastings of various beer specialities. By arrangement by telephone, Braufux organises excursions with beer tastings and a snack.

The right accommodation for planning your trip

A holiday apartment or holiday home in Grieskirchen may be a sensible search option if you want to use trails that start directly in the town centre, combine culture and scenery, and also take travel by train into account. Grieskirchen-Gallspach railway station is approximately 1 kilometre from the town of Grieskirchen. If, on the other hand, you mainly want to plan visits to castles, museums, bike tours or regional culinary experiences, you should choose the accommodation’s location based on your personal daily destinations. This allows you to select your base more closely according to your preferred travel pace and planned discoveries.

More places for your search

You can find further destination pages for your regional search under Kematen Am Innbach, Meggenhofen, Michaelnbach, Hofkirchen An Der Trattnach, Bad Schallerbach, Schlüßlberg, Sankt Agatha, Haag Am Hausruck, Grieskirchen, Wallern An Der Trattnach, Wendling, Neukirchen Am Walde, Sölden An Der Straß, Eschenau Im Hausruckkreis, Gaspoltshofen, Heiligenberg, Natternbach, Neumarkt Im Hausruckkreis, Peuerbach, Pollham, Pötting, Pram, Rottenbach, Sankt Georgen Bei Grieskirchen, Sankt Thomas bei Waizenkirchen, Steegen, Taufkirchen an der Trattnach, Tollet, Waizenkirchen, Weibern, Gallspach, Geboltskirchen, Aistersheim and Kallham.

For the higher-level travel overview: Upper Austria.