News

Our nature park and the Rudolfswarte tower are open all year round. There is free access with no entry fees.

Help needed for translation of web pages into English! Any support for translation of our German texts into proper English and for corrections of existing English pages is very welcome. If you can help, please send us a short mail: info@naturpark-purkersdorf.at

Our nature park is freely accessible...

...please note our nature park rules...

The Wienerwaldhaus Museum,  the drinking fountain and the WC at the Nature Park Centre are closed until the end of March. The two "dry" porta-potties on the western edge of the Kellerwiese are available at all times.

The latest news...

...are always available on our facebook and Instagram channels.

Precautionary measure

As already known from the media, foot-and-mouth disease has broken out in neighboring countries. Although it is harmless to humans, it can be transmitted to animals. In order to keep our entire animal population in the enclosures at the Kellerwiese and the wild animals at the nature park center healthy, we ask that you neither feed nor pet the animals.
Thank you very much.

Nature park employee for our nature park outdoor team wanted!

Together with the municipality of Purkersdorf, we are looking for a committed and responsible nature park ranger to work part-time for 26 hours per week from mid-April 2025. We offer a varied job in a much-visited Lower Austrian nature park with a varied and exciting field of work. > To the job description (in German)
We look forward to receiving your application.

Annual report 2024 online

Our annual report provides a compact review of the nature park's activities, highlights and successes of the past year.

Donate and save taxes

The Purkersdorf Nature Park was recognised as a charitable organisation with registration number NT2157 by the tax office on 30 July 2024 with effect from 1 January 2024. Donations to the Nature Park are therefore fully tax-deductible.

• For companies, donations to us are fully tax-deductible as a business expense.
• Donations from individuals are automatically taken into account as special expenses for income tax or employee tax assessment if you provide your name and date of birth on the bank transfer so that we can report the donations to the tax office at the beginning of the following year.

Please support us with a donation to our account "Verein Naturpark Purkersdorf" IBAN AT54 1200 0006 1914 6806.
Read more

Enjoy the first warm rays of sunshine to the full...

...and relax on a walk in the spring forest.

From March onwards, before the copper beeches with their leaves no longer let so much sunlight through to the forest floor, the ground plants, especially wild garlic with its typical garlic scent, stand out on an early spring walk. Find out more about wild garlic, including a recipe, in our gourmet brochure in German) on page 8/9.

Hiking in the nature park

Well equipped, nothing stands in the way of a walk in the forest. For better orientation, our team replaces some of the uniform yellow signposts with our new, brightly colored signage system.
Thanks to the fragrant spring air, on sunny days you have a particularly wonderful view of the colorful Wienerwald, especially at this time of year, as the yellow blossoming "Dirndls" and later the wild cherries stand out.Please note our hiking tips.

Our wild animal enclosures in spring

Our deer and wild boar can be observed particularly well in the enclosure in spring. Since mid-March, our stag has been almost indistinguishable from the hinds for a short time, as it has shed its antlers so that new, even more impressive antlers can grow back. At this time of year, our wild boar usually produce lively offspring in the form of new cubs. They can be easily recognized by their striped fur. Due to the replacement of the boar (male wild boar) last fall, there are unfortunately no cubs in the enclosure this year.

Roe deer enclosure currently still uninhabited

After our roebuck unfortunately escaped last autumn, we are taking advantage of the vacancy and have already thinned out the enclosure somewhat. It is currently being extended with an additional green area and a water place. We hope that we will be able to offer tame deer again in spring 2025.

10 years of nature park beekeeper Bieno & nature park honey special edition 2024/25

The nature park and master beekeeper Benno Karner have been working closely together for 10 years, for which he has now received an award from the Austrian Nature Park Association. With his many years of work as a nature park beekeeper "Bieno", he makes an important contribution to biodiversity with his industrious bees. 

The nature park honey with the title of Nature Park Speciality of the Austrian Nature Parks supports old traditions in production and in particular the preservation of this cultural landscape. We would like to thank you very much for the good cooperation and look forward to many more years of delicious nature park honey!

Our nature park honey not only sweetens tea or many dishes, but also keeps you healthy. The jars (250g and 500g) with the particularly pretty winner's label from last year's competition can be purchased from the Nature Park office. Please order in advance.

Clean empty jars without lids can be handed in at any time at Wiener Straße 12 by the door to the Nature Park office.

Biosphere Reserve report about Purkersdorf

The Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald has provided to all Wienerwald municipalities a report about the most important measures to safeguard biodiversity. The report for Purkersdorf shows that many suggestions are well covered by our activities in the nature park. 
A summary of the municipal report can be found here on our website.

Listen to our nature park and watch the video

Together with "Hallo Purkersdorf", our managing director was able to record a podcast about her work and our Purkersdorf Nature Park at the beginning of July. Click here for the blog and to listen in.

As part of his Voluntary Environmental Year 2025, Leonard Rubik made a short video to mark the 50th birthday of our nature park and the day it was founded on April 26, 1975, capturing the past and present of the nature park.

Benedikt Brabetz also made a great video project about the Nature Park in 2024. Ben shows you what the Nature Park means to him and uses interviews to capture what the Nature Park means to others.

"Nature meets books" 

Together with the Purkersdorf City Library, we still collaborate on the theme of “Nature meets books” this year. In addition to the summer events for reading in the countryside. In addition, the nature park has made part of its specialist library available to the city library until further notice. These media can be borrowed from the city library. Books can be found in the following areas: Identification books, educational forest media, cookbooks, information on the Austrian nature parks and much more.

We are the 1st Nature Park School Campus!

Since June 7, 2024, besides the Purkersdorf general special school (ASO), the Purkersdorf elementary school and the Schöffelschule (Lower Austrian middle school) have also been certified as Nature Park schools. Together they now form the 1st Nature Park School Campus and have anchored the Nature Park in their respective educational concept. Nature park-related topics are incorporated into regular lessons so that the children get to know and appreciate the beauty, diversity and importance of our forests. 

"Science meets schools"

The "Science meets schools" project has been running since November 2023. Along Schwarzhubergasse and in the adjacent Purkersdorf school campus, pupils from the nature park schools ASO, the primary school and the secondary school have planted a climate hedge with the nature park.

By regularly observing the hedges (leaf sprouting, flowering, fruiting), the children investigate how temperature, sunshine and precipitation influence growth in different locations. The research work on the hedge ("outside") is processed and analysed in class ("inside"). With the start of spring, the pupils were able to discover and explore the first buds.

Outdoor classroom of the Gablitz primary school in Purkersdorf nature park

Due to the great success of the last 4 years, the market town of Gablitz has extended the outdoor classroom programme until June 2027. Last autumn, 4 forest learning days and further training with the school's teachers have already taken place.

Book tip (in German): What forest can do

What our native forests can do for climate and species protection.
“Everyone wants wood, but nobody wants to cut down trees,” says author and forestry expert Peter Laufmann. He shows how a near-natural, integrative forest management actually strengthens the role of forests in the fight against climate change. An exciting and fascinating invitation to an important change of perspective on the forest system.

Peter Laufmann: Das kann Wald - Was unsere heimischen Wälder für den Klima- und Artenschutz leisten", 160 Seiten, Taschenbuch € 18,50
available at naturseiten.at