Der Weg der Wallfahrer (Teilabschnitt des St. Rupert Pilgerweg)

Romantic hike on easy paths - the detours, however, require surefootedness and a head for heights. Take care in wet conditions!

Hiking information
Legend has it that St Wolfgang lived as a hermit behind the vertical wall of the Falkenstein at the foot of the Schafberg. He is said to have hurled his hoe here to determine the building site for the church of St Wolfgang. The projectile landed 4 kilometres away, exactly where today's church stands. In the Middle Ages, it became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Europe alongside Rome and Santiago de Compostela. Most pilgrims came via the Falkenstein. On the way there, you can still find the stones they dragged up to atone for their sins, but also the Falkenstein church, which was built over a crawl-through stone in the rock face, and cup stones, which were interpreted as traces of the saint and the devil. All these relics of a pagan world of faith are explained on themed panels.
From the parish church in St. Gilgen, walk across Streicherplatz and turn right onto Mondseer Straße towards Lake Wolfgangsee. After the marker 28, you reach the Brunnwinkel district. There, turn right along the idyllic lakeside promenade, carved out of the rock in places and secured with railings, to Gasthof Fürberg. Continue along the lake until the path splits 200 metres after the junction with the access road: On the right, we recommend a detour along the in places narrow and exposed circular path (no. 19) to the Wedding Cross and the Ox Cross, a chapel on a tiny rocky island. The Way of the Cross begins on the left and leads up through a steep forest ditch to the Falkenstein church (marker 28). Before the lower chapel, a narrow, also marked path branches off to the right to the Scheffelblick high above the lake, which rejoins the wide Falkensteinweg at the spring chapel near the Falkenstein church. This leads over a rocky saddle where there are two more chapels (turn-off to the exposed Aberseeblick). Pass a waterfall and a wayside shrine on the way down to the village of Ried. Follow the lakeside road to the left and then take the uphill Riedstraße to the pilgrimage church of St. Wolfgang.

Rest stops:
In St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang, Gasthof Fürberg.