Werfen Off The Beaten Path

4 more images

Waffenkammer / chamber for the weapons is one of the highlights of any guided tour through the castle of Werfen. You may see several rooms filled ith weapons of all centuries and fire-fighting-utensils are part of these exhibits as well, because burning down a castle was quite an easy way to force the inhabitants to give up.
Photography is absolutely no problem inside the castle or during the guided tour, even the use of a flash is possible.
Calculate your time, the guided tour is quite exhausting with plenty of steps climbing up and down, but I think it is worth it to take that tour, lasting about 55 minutes.

4 more images

Hellbrunn is a perfect daytrip from Werfen in a distance of just about 40km to the north. Hellbrunn is within the city-limits of the city of Salzburg, but when you come from the south, it is easy to get there without the need to drive through the city. The archibishop of Salzburg had his summer-residence in Hellbrunn and he was quite a funny guy, who had water-playes with hidden fountains installed in his baroque gardens.
You may visit this garden in a guided tour and will beginn at the table, where everybody of the 12 guests will get, except the bishop, who knew of course, where his dry place would be.
There are various other waterplays, a waterorgan, various grottos and other amusements - see my Hellbrunn-page !
There is also an interesting museum inside the palace with great baroque frescos and up on a hill another museum about local customs in Salzburg ( Heimatmuseum)

4 more images

Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse is just 60 km to the south of Werfen and it could be done easily in a fullday-tour, when you start early in the morning. You have to pay a toll at that road : 26 euros for 1 day or 35 euros for a total of 30 days: the number of your licence-plate will be printed on the ticket and the date you enter and so you may also go to the other side of the pass, to Heiligenblut and enter again the toll-area the same day on your way back, without paying extra.
This is certainly the most scenic road that you may find in Austria, and Grossglockner is also the highest mountain in Austria with 3798 m above sea-level.
You will find various restaurants and hotels along that road, some of the hotels are also able to offer you a free-toll-ticket, when you stay with them a few days.

4 more images

Koenigsee is one of the most scenic alpine lakes of Bavaria, and it is in a distance of just about 40km from Werfen. Koenigsee - quite close to Berchtesgaden - is quite a cold lake, BUT obviously not cold enough to freeze in winter, because it allows shiping even most of the wintertime, although it is surrounded completely by high mountains and the sun will disappear quite early in winter.
St.Bartholmae is a lovely pilgrim-church at the shore of Koenigsee and the only way to get there is by boat. St. Bartholomae is also well known for fish-dishes and smoked fishes to take home, all of the fishing-rights of that lake are in posession of just 1 family for hundreds of years already.
All of the ships on Koenigsee will be electrically powered and so you will almost hear NO noises at all, while taking a boat-ride, EXCEPT the world-famous Koenigsee-echo, when someone is jodeling or playing the trumpet...

4 more images

Brennhof is an interesting building in Werfen, directely at main square, and you might need a second look in order to see its special beauty : It almost looks like a modern house, only at a few windows and at the entrance-gate you may see that this building dates back to the gothic.
Werfen used to be an important village with a small pass through the alps and also the river Salzach gave them the possibility to take in tolls from all the merchants passing through their village - this is how they were able to live easily, protected by the castle of Hohenwerfen.
Today it houses the "Gemeindeamt" , (thats like the townhall) and also the Tourist-office:
Tourist-info is open Mon-Fri 09.00a.m.-05.00p.m.

4 more images

Dont miss to take a small walk through the village of Werfen, before you go on to Eisriesewelt or to Burg Hohenwerfen. Take a look at the village next to these high mountains and the lovely castle. Werfen is certainly a great place for a stop-over and hotels are also in general a lot cheaper than in Salzburg, Hallein or other well known places.
many places of interest could easily be reached by car or by train, so why not choosing Werfen as the base for your excursions and taking one of the cheap hotels there ?