Georgenberg

Georgenberg is a small hilltop village in northern Lower Austria, part of the municipality of Göpfritz an der Wild. It sits on a wooded ridge 646 metres above sea level, six hundred metres above the surrounding valleys. The settlement consists of about fifteen buildings and is reached by a single road climbing from Weinpolz on the Waidhofener Straße. Around the village the Sieghartser Berge rise to 688 metres, separating the granite highlands from the Weinviertel to the east.

The name comes from a medieval chapel dedicated to Saint George, built in the 12th or 13th century. The church once served a small community with a graveyard and burial rights, first mentioned in 1338 as a filial of Waidhofen an der Thaya. By the 17th century only ten dependent households remained, and services were held only on St George’s Day. In 1786 the building was secularised, its tower removed and the nave demolished, leaving the solid apse and crypt as part of a house.

Today the former church forms the core of a quiet hamlet of a handful of cottages. The surviving romanesque apse and vaulted crypt can still be seen inside one of the dwellings. The surrounding forest covers the slopes of the Sieghartser Berge, offering long views across the Waldviertel. A single lane winds through the settlement, passing the converted chapel and leading back down to Weinpolz.