Our journey through the Wachau begins in Stein, today a district in Krems. This old settlement area is one of the most outstandingly-preserved historic street ensembles in Austria. Today, its building façades and entrances are decorated in the traditional way and show off the town’s splendid Renaissance and mediaeval buildings.

Up the Danube to Dürnstein in which a castle ruin guards this mediaeval town and where narrow streets and a renovated Chorherrenstift monastery of the Augustins attracts many visitors.

Weissenkirchen has always been a wine-growing centre. The small town has a long and militant history. With its dominant church, old buildings and courtyards, it has the appearance of a splendid mediaeval town.

From the ninth century to 1504, Spitz was a Bavarian enclave located on the Danube that was owned by the Niederaltaich Monastery and various Counts. The church, consecrated to Saint Mauritius, dates back to Late Gothic times. Its interior highlights the sacred splendour of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and contains altars with putti and saints, and paintings by Kremser Schmidt.

Stift Melk is situated on a steep rock above the Danube and is where both nature and architecture unite as one with a monastic rock and remarkable Benedictine monastery.

Since the year 2000, the Wachau has been a World Cultural Region, a gem on the long route of the Danube.