Erzberg

The Erzberg is a mountain of siderite standing over Eisenerz, cut into some sixty terraces each about twenty-four metres high, which gives it the stepped red-brown profile visible for a long way and makes it one of the more striking industrial landscapes in Europe. Mining is documented from the eleventh century and probably ran earlier; it was the basis of the Styrian iron industry and of the Eisenstrasse trade routes. Open-cast working continues, at reduced scale from the peak. Two visits are offered: a surface tour riding the Hauly, a converted haul truck that carries passengers up the terraces, and an underground tour by mine railway into the old galleries. The town below shrank hard as employment fell and has a visible emptiness to it.

What you actually see

• Sixty cut terraces - the stepped red-brown mountain above the town.
• A working open-cast mine - still producing, at a fraction of its peak.
• The Hauly ride - a converted haul truck carrying visitors up the benches.
• Underground galleries - the mine railway tour into the old workings.

When to go

May to October; tours close over winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Tours run to a timetable and close for the season. Underground is cold. Blasting can restrict surface access. Eisenerz below is a shrinking town, which some visitors find bleak.

Nearby

The Leopoldsteinersee is next door; the Gesäuse National Park is east.