Archaeology in the Mostviertel

The Mostviertel sites range from Neolithic hilltop settlements to prisoner-of-war camps from the First World War.

The fertile soils and favourable location between the Danube and the Alps attracted people to the Mostviertel as long ago as the late Neolithic period. Archaeological finds show that the region has been a constantly popular settlement area ever since.

For thousands of years, the land between the Danube and the Alps was a meeting place for Europe’s western and eastern cultural traditions. As far back as 5,500 years ago, settlements on almost inaccessible rock faces such as the Schweighofer Mauer near Ertl belonged to the eastern periphery of the Mondsee culture. Much later, Slavs settled along the river Enns, the official western border of the Avar Empire. The Traisental valley was an important settlement centre across the ages. The largest Bronze Age burial fields in Europe were excavated in Franzhausen. Under modern-day St. Pölten lies the Roman town of Aelium Cetium, of which the governor’s palace was discovered in the cathedral square. During the First World War, large prisoner-of-war camps were built in the Erlauftal valley; archaeologists have investigated the camp in Purgstall.