Cultural landscape Wachau

The Wachau is a 36 km long breakthrough valley along the Danube. It was formed because the Danube between Emmersdorf and Melk in the west and Stein and Mautern in the east separated the Dunkelsteinerwald from the Waldviertel and thus in some places cut more than 700 m deep into the rump mountain landscape of the Bohemian Massif.

In 2000, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites as the Wachau Cultural Landscape, together with the Melk and Göttweig Abbeys and the Old Town of Krems.