Rattenberg

Rattenberg is the smallest town in Austria, wedged between the Inn and the cliff of the Schlossberg with room for barely two parallel streets. That squeeze is the point: the houses are tall, painted and pressed together, with arcaded passages cutting between them, and the whole centre can be walked in twenty minutes. Because the mountain stands directly to the south, the sun does not reach the streets at all from late autumn until February, which locals treat as a fact of life rather than a complaint. Glass cutting and engraving have been the town trade for generations, and workshops still open onto the main street.

What you actually see

• The main street - the row of tall painted burgher houses with arcades and oriel windows.
• The castle ruin above - the short climb up the Schlossberg to broken walls and the view over the Inn.
• The glass workshops - the cutting and engraving trade that has kept the old town in business.
• The parish church of St Virgil - the Gothic church built with two parallel naves side by side.

When to go

Late spring to early autumn, when the streets get direct light and the workshops are open. Midwinter has the opposite appeal, since the town sits in permanent shadow and leans into candlelight for its Advent market. Weekday mornings are near empty; Sundays bring day trippers from Innsbruck and Kufstein.

Honest expectations

It is very small. An hour covers the streets, and there is little to do beyond looking, buying glass and eating. Several shops trade on souvenir volume rather than craft. In winter the lack of sun makes it genuinely cold and dim by mid afternoon. Parking sits outside the old town and is charged.

Nearby

Kufstein and its fortress and the Zillertal valley are both a short drive along the Inn.