Morbisch am See

Mörbisch is the last village on the western shore before the Hungarian border and is built in a distinctive way: long narrow plots with whitewashed single-storey houses running back from the street, joined by arched gateways, with the courtyards - the Hofgassen - forming lanes of their own behind the frontages, and maize hung in yellow bunches to dry along the walls in autumn, which is the image the village is known by. It is a wine village. Out on the lake, a floating stage seating some six thousand has held the Seefestspiele since 1957, an operetta festival running through July and August with the reeds and water behind the set. The Hungarian border crossing to Fertőrákos is a few hundred metres away and open for walkers and cyclists.

History

Mörbisch has been inhabited since around 5000 BC, and in 1935 a La Tène burial ground with bronze brooches, neck rings and iron swords was found west of the village. The name is first recorded in 1254 as possessio Megyes, from the Hungarian word for cherry, and until 1921 the village belonged to Sopron County in Hungary; after the treaties of St Germain and Trianon it became part of the new Austrian state of Burgenland in 1921, though its ties to Sopron stayed strong until 1945. From 1945 to 1989 the Iron Curtain ran between Mörbisch and Sopron, and border controls ended in late 2007 when Hungary joined the Schengen Area (Wikipedia, Mörbisch am See).

What's there

• Hofgassen courtyard lanes - whitewashed houses on long plots behind arched gates.
• Maize hung to dry - yellow bunches along the walls in autumn.
• The floating operetta stage - the Seefestspiele on the lake since 1957.
• A border crossing on foot - the path into Hungary at Fertőrákos.

When to go

May to September; July and August for the festival. A day.

Things to know

Festival nights fill the village and accommodation for miles. Performances are operetta in German. The lake shore is beyond a belt of reeds, not at the village edge.

Nearby

Rust is north; Fertőrákos and Sopron are over the Hungarian border.

Key facts