Reißtalquelle

The Reißtalquelle is a spring on the Rax in Lower Austria, captured for Vienna’s first high-level water pipeline. It lies in a narrow valley above Hinternaßwald, where the Nassbach stream begins. The site sits below steep limestone walls called Scheibwaldmauer and Kahlmäuer, part of the Rax massif’s north-west face. The spring was planned in the 1860s as a main source for Vienna’s new water supply. Legal disputes delayed its use until the mid-1890s, when it finally fed water into the system. Today it yields between 70 and 200 litres per second, supplying up to one-tenth of the pipeline’s daily flow. Its water stays at a steady 6.7 °C and is the hardest in the whole pipeline. A small shaft-like structure covers the spring, reaching seven metres down to clay. A 74-metre-long covered channel runs across the valley floor to catch extra flows. The brick control house nearby is protected as part of the historic pipeline. Beyond the fenced area, the Rax–Schneeberg landscape is a large protected zone, with strict rules to keep the water pure.