The "Hamerlingwarte" in Gars am Kamp

Gars am Kamp is a village in the Kamptal (Kamp valley) in Lower Austria. This region used to be a famous holiday destination in the era of the then so called "Sommerfrische". That's how Austrian called long relaxing and hiking holidays in the nature at the beginning of the 20th century.

World War II stopped the Sommerfrische activities in Austria. Other regions recovered but the Kamp valley had a hard time. After WW II many rivers, amongst them the Kamp, were dammed up. The booming economy but of course also the people demanded a lot of electricity. Because of the dams, the Kamp's water temperature and it's flow velocity were not as comfortable anymore. In addition, other destinations in foreign countries became more attractive for the Austrian: First Italy, later also Spain, Greece and Turkey.

In the 1980s, Willi Dungl, a famous masseur and health expert who helped a lot of famous athletes such as Niki Lauda, Steffi Graf, Thomas Muster, Ayrton Senna, Andre Agassi and many more, founded a health resort in Gars and the village became famous again.

I alread did many hikes in Gars am Kamp and have to say that it really has a lot of nice possibilities of shorter and longer hikes with interesting destinations and great lookouts.

This story is about the "Hamerlingwarte". That hike can be started at the Waldpension Mück that is located in Wozniczakgasse 118.

Just follow the street, some meters after the Waldpension it will become a forest path, that after some more meters becomes smaller, steeper and winding.

Five minutes later you will reach a broader forest path. Here you must turn right.

The path is now broader and not as steep as before. A little bit more than five minutes and you will see a repeater tower. Behind that tower you will discover the Hamerlingwarte, an octagonal lookout pavillion.

The Hamerlingwarte is named after the Austrian poet Robert Hamerling. He used to be famous in the middle of the 19th century. Today his works are almost forgotten, although there is a street named after him in every bigger Lower Austrian community.

The first lookout pavillon was erected in 1929 but dismantled in 1939 for security reasons. It was intended to build a new lookout pavillon in 1989, 100 years after Hamerling's death, but then it needed 12 more years until the pavillon was built.