7 places 7 treasures winter hike

• We begin our winter hike with the Burgthannerweg at the main square, the central hiking starting point of St. Ruprecht an der Raab, and start right at the first of the 7 places - namely with the Grotto of Peace.
• The Peace Grotto under the church stairs of the baroque church of St. Ruprecht an der Raab, which is also worth seeing, is a special place of inner peace and silence. The overall concept and the entire realisation is by Hans Pendl: one finds here an altar with a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary (Queen of Peace made of Styrian lime wood), which is connected to the original cross of the 11th Station of the Cross from Medjugorje. A memorial for star children was also created in the grotto. Get in the mood for the Way here, take your time and perhaps light a candle.
• This is how we get in the mood for the path ahead. We start at the main square and follow the yellow signs towards the Kernkapellenweg. The Kernkapellenweg first leads together with the Panoramaweg past the fire brigade over the Weizbach bridge into Gartengasse, which we follow straight ahead to soon cross the main road.

• Here we first turn right and then immediately left, where we reach the Hubertus Chapel, a popular resting place, after a short ascent. Here Hans Pendl depicts the creation in the form of a shooting target made of Styrian lime wood. It is meant to show the shooter that God has appointed man as the guardian of his creation, which he should handle responsibly.
• The path continues across a meadow directly into one of the beautiful high forests that line the ridge. Then we cross a road and after about 100 metres turn left into the forest at a house. Via a particularly idyllic spot - the Salmbachbrückerl and the Marienruhe (Attention, can be a bit slippery!) - we continue through the forest a little uphill until we come to a junction where the Panoramaweg and the Kernkapellenweg separate.
• Here we continue straight ahead following the yellow signs towards the Kernkapelle (the Panoramaweg turns right) until we reach the end of the forest. There the "Stoarieglkreuz" is waiting for us and invites us to take a short rest. We walk past beautiful detached houses towards the road. At the road, we turn left and follow it for a few hundred metres.

• After a few hundred metres, turn left onto a forest path into a small wood. After a few metres, we turn right again and continue towards the ridge. At the edge of the forest, right next to beautiful apple orchards, past goats, we continue uphill for a bit until we reach the road via a meadow path. Once there, you will be surprised by a wonderful 360° panoramic view of wintry eastern styria.
• At 450 m above sea level, directly on the Styrian Apple Road, you have a wonderful view of the Schöckl, the local mountain of Graz, the Kulm, the Koralpe and the mountains of the Wechsel region. Enjoying this wonderful view, we already have the Kernkapelle - the destination - in view to the left.
• The Kernkapelle - a special place of spiritual life and the next special place on our path - invites you to linger. Here you are welcomed at eye level, so to speak, by the life-size 1.95 m high Emmaus Jesus carved by Hans Pendl from Styrian pine wood. "I am in your midst" - is what the statue, also meant to be touched, is meant to convey to us. Take some time to relax in the core chapel and enjoy the beautiful view.

• With fresh strength we start the way back. We continue to follow the asphalt road westwards until we come to a crossroads. Here we turn left. We pass well-kept family homes and farms for about one kilometre until we turn right following a forest road. We walk a few metres through fragrant apple orchards until we reach the so-called "Arndorfer Wald".
• This forest road was once the connection between St. Ruprecht and Kühwiesen, but is no longer used today. We hike downhill through this beautiful forest until we arrive in the St. Ruprecht district of Arndorf. There we come to the asphalted road and turn left at the first crossroads to the Arndorf Chapel of Prayer, an open prayer chapel that was redesigned in 2015. This next point on our path "7 Places 7 Treasures" - the Arndorf Chapel of Prayer, shows the kneeling Jesus on the Mount of Olives carved by Hans Pendl: "I go my way and am not deterred". With this motto in mind, we continue our walk :-) and follow the road towards the centre of St. Ruprecht an der Raab until we come to a larger crossroads.
• Here we turn right in the direction of "Lieb Bau", a large local construction company. We walk past the Lieb company, over a level crossing and through a subway back towards St. Ruprecht's main square. We come to Weizbachgasse, into which we turn following the signs to the "Kunstpark" (do not follow Feldgasse) and make a detour there.

• The Art Park (by the Schilswiese) is another particularly worthwhile stop on our "7 Squares 7 Treasures" trail. The art park is a park by everyone for everyone and houses numerous objects by over 20 regional artists. Let yourself be seduced into the boundless world of art and browse through huge dominoes, iron artworks, clay artworks and much more. Snow opens up particularly interesting perspectives here! Here, too, we find a work of art by Hans Pendl: with "Warum nur, Mensch?" ("Why only, man?"), the wood artist draws attention to the current state of the world with a despairing man on a globe and encourages reflection.
• We walk back to Weizbachgasse and follow it briefly until we turn sharp left (before the uphill slope) over a bridge towards Gartengasse. We turn right into Gartengasse, past the fire brigade, back to our starting point, the main square.

• Arriving at the main square, we now change to Burgthannerweg - we briefly follow the main road southwards to turn right at Locker & Legére and walk past the Marktheurigen Strobl. Soon we reach the bridge over the Raab, but before the bridge we turn right onto the Raaballee. This is also the start of the bee trail, which we follow.
• Along the Raab we first reach the asphalt road and then, following a forest road, after a few hundred metres we reach a beautiful footbridge that leads us across the Raab to the tennis courts of the village. Here we keep to the right and after a few metres turn left at a high electricity pylon into the forest, where we meet another station of the bee nature trail. Before that, we should take a short break at the willow dome - another special place of power near a power pole.
• Through a dense high forest on a beautifully laid out path, we follow the Burgthannerweg uphill over serpentines to the Stefaniequelle spring, whose romantic spot invites us to take a first rest and whose water is said to have eye-healing properties. The Stefanie Spring is a very special place of the Seven Places, which invites you to take a break. Here, too, Hans Pendl has created a beautiful wooden relief made of Swiss stone pine - in keeping with the theme of the spring, a woman's head (it can be St. Catherine or St. Stefanie, depending on the interpretation) with drops of water.

• Then we climb a few steps to the crossroads, where we say goodbye to the Rauchenberg path, which had led parallel until then, and continue to follow the Burgthanner path. Here we make a detour to the third place - the so-called "Kindersegensplatz" or "Blessing Place for Children", a beautiful place for young and old with a tree marterl made from a 960 kg tree trunk of a 130-year-old oak. The carved sculpture is made of lime wood: "Let the children come to me, for to them belongs the kingdom of God", is the motto here.
• Afterwards, we return to the Burgthannerweg and follow it briefly in a northerly direction where, after a few metres, you can take a short detour to the world's largest natural DDD television with a beautiful view of St. Ruprecht an der Raab. If you only want to take a short route, you can also shorten the Burgthannerweg and walk back to the main square of St. Ruprecht an der Raab via the world's largest natural DDD television and from there follow the Kernkapellenweg for the rest of the route.

• However, after the short detour to the world's largest natural DDD television, we return to the Burgthannerweg - we hike northwards in the forest for a short while and after a few metres we come to a clearing where we are soon greeted by an apple orchard with a view of the wintry village. Following the pleasant path above the apple orchard, we come to a road that leads from St. Ruprecht an der Raab to the Rauchenberg district and the Freiberg Golf Club.
• Here we turn left towards the centre of the village and walk along the little-used asphalt road for a short distance before turning left again after a few metres. We now follow the meadow path slightly downhill, which offers us a beautiful view of the village of St. Ruprecht an der Raab. Please walk particularly carefully here again - some danger of slipping in winter. There we arrive at the end of the meadow lane - we follow this asphalt road only a few metres to continue straight ahead again on a meadow path.
• Passing fields and an apple orchard, we follow this path straight ahead for about 100 m and arrive at Quellenstraße. Here we turn right following the asphalt road and come to Fünfinger Straße, which we turn left into. We follow this straight on over the bridge, at the roundabout we go straight on into Parkstraße where we again pass the Marktheurigen Strobl and Locker & Légere to get back to the main square.

Marking:

The path "7 squares 7 treasures" is not specially marked with yellow signs, but follows the Burgthannerweg and the Kernkapellenweg. These two paths are marked red-white-red, as is common in the Alpine region, and at the crossing points you will find yellow boards with black lettering and time information. On these boards you will find white stickers with the note "7 places 7 treasures". At the main square - the general hiking starting point in St. Ruprecht an der Raab - a stand with many yellow boards marks the direction.

• You will find refreshments in the numerous restaurants in St. Ruprecht an der Raab.
• More than 200 excursion destinations and enjoyment stations free of charge with the GenussCard.

For local transportation we recommend the SAM-Sammeltaxi Oststeiermark.

Eastern Styria Tourist Board
St. Ruprecht an der Raab office
Lower main street 27
8181 St. ruprecht an der Raab
Tel. +43 664 2353414
ruprecht@oststeiermark.com
www.oststeiermark.com

The idea for this hiking trail came from Hermine Arnold - embark on an impressive search for traces of Hans Pendl so that you can form your own impression of the work of the famous Ruprecht woodcarver. The idea was refined in collaboration with "weges".

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