Lobau

The Lobau is a wide floodplain on the northern bank of the Danube in south-east Vienna. It belongs to the Danube-Auen National Park and stretches between the river and the Marchfeld plain. The land is crossed by old river arms, ponds and wet meadows that change with the seasons. A network of paths and trails runs through the area, linking quiet corners with busier spots by the water. The Lobau has shaped military history and conservation alike. In 1809 it was the scene of the Battle of Aspern, Napoleon’s first defeat, where thousands of soldiers fought on the open fields north of the floodplain. Today stone markers, a powder magazine and a French cemetery recall those weeks when the area served as the emperor’s headquarters. In peacetime the Lobau became a protected landscape, a royal hunting ground visited by Crown Prince Rudolf and later Emperor Franz Joseph. Since 1996 it has formed part of the Danube-Auen National Park, recognised as a Ramsar wetland and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Visitors find long hiking routes such as the Ostösterreichischer Grenzlandweg and swimming spots like Dechantlacke and Panozzalacke. The Obere Lobau nature trail leads from Saltenstraße to Dechantweg through softwood and hardwood riparian forests of willow and poplar. A 135-metre wooden bridge, the Josefsteg, crosses the Schröderwasser amid dense reed beds. The landscape still shelters rare aquatic plants and specialised mudflat species, though water levels have fallen in recent decades.