Buschberg

The Buschberg rises in the Leiser Berge range in northern Lower Austria, the highest point in the wine-growing Weinviertel. Its gentle slopes carry meadows and dry grasslands while the flat summit plateau ends in a sheer drop on the southern side. Two lower tops flank the main crest: the Steinmandl to the east and a southern spur called Simperlberg. Archaeologists have found Roman-era traces and a prehistoric ring-wall on the western shoulder, showing the hill was watched for centuries. In the Middle Ages a small fortified lookout was built on the southern spur; locals still call it the Schwedenschanze. Today the hill shelters rare steppe grassland and two radar towers: the Austro Control air-traffic control dome and a military Goldhaube antenna with a 500 km range. Visitors walk the Weinviertelweg 632 or the Jakobsweg Weinviertel to the Buschberghütte, the Alpine Club’s lowest hut at 484 m. From the plateau they look north across the Marchfeld to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, while the radar towers mark the skyline. The surrounding Leiser Berge Nature Park protects the special flora of this dry limestone ridge.