Fugnitz

The Fugnitz is a small river in north-eastern Lower Austria, flowing through the Thaya valley. It rises between the villages of Purgstall and Dallein in the district of Horn and meets the Thaya at Hardegg. Along its course it passes the hamlet of Fugnitz and the Fugnitz forest. The name comes from the Slavic word for beech, pointing to the beech woods once lining its banks. In June 2006 a sudden storm swelled the Fugnitz so quickly that it undercut the railway embankment of the local line from Retz to Drosendorf. The Reblaus-Express service to Drosendorf had to be suspended and a road bridge on the Thayatal road was damaged. Hardegg suffered serious flooding as well. Traces of the old hydro-electric plant built in 1920 and destroyed in 1945 by the Soviet army still lie in the Rosental valley: a concrete pipe bridge, the open water channel, the pressure pipeline and the powerhouse foundations. The river’s modest size—its catchment is about 137 square kilometres—belies its historical importance. In the Beneš memoranda after the First World War a border adjustment was proposed that would have turned Hardegg, Merkersdorf and Karlslust castle into Czechoslovak territory, making the Fugnitz part of the frontier for a time. Today the quiet valley offers woodland walks and views of the beech woods that gave the stream its name.