Kloster Hochstraß

A 19th-century convent stands in the rolling hills of Niederösterreich near the village of Hochstraß. Built by the Daughters of Divine Love, the complex once housed a domestic science school for young women. During the Second World War the school closed and refugees took shelter inside its walls. After the war the sisters returned, reopened the school, and ran it until 2009. The entire estate is now protected as a listed monument. A small cemetery with a dozen graves and wayside crosses lies about 100 metres to the west. Today the former cloister operates as a quiet seminar hotel called Refugium Hochstrass. Guests walk through vaulted corridors and quiet courtyards once used by the sisters. Views stretch across the surrounding farmland and wooded slopes.