The best traffic-free bike rides in Hartweichs

The historic old town of Zwettl in the Waldviertel captivates with medieval city walls, colorful baroque facades, and the colorful Hundertwasser fountain on the main square. Highlights include the Old Town Hall with its city museum, the striking Antonturm, and the nearby Zwettl Abbey (Cistercian monastery).

Between Klosterstraße and Schulturm, the city wall is integrated as an outer wall into the St.Martin retirement home and can be viewed from the adjacent car park. Numerous new breakthroughs will be made during the construction work at the retirement home.

Sometime between 1935 and 1938, the tower gets its current roof; before that, it was known with brick battlements.

The school tower stands at the easternmost corner of the city wall. The tower's floor plan is polygonal (eight sides of different lengths). The tower is four stories high, with a descending floor without windows and three ascending ones. It is placed in front of the existing wall, which can be seen very clearly on the wide inner side and the connection corners. Access to the tower is via an opening in the city wall. On the 2nd upper floor, there is a bricked-up door, which presumably led to the rampart. The defensive tower was formerly called Hafnerturm, due to the neighboring Hafner workshops at Neuer Markt. It gets its current name from the citizens' school founded in 1872, the first in Lower Austria, which is located on the same plot and is now run as a New Middle School for Sport and Economy.

Otherwise only released for agricultural vehicles

The Zwettl City Museum is a modern museum designed to appeal to both children and adults! We don't just want to preserve history, but to present it in an engaging, memorable, informative, and interesting way. Therefore, this museum is designed according to the latest museum education principles. All activities are geared towards achieving this goal. The museum features a model of the city where visitors can modify all the elements—houses, city walls, and bridges. With the help of instructions, the city's development from its founding in the 12th century to the 20th century can be traced. In addition to the most important documents of the city of Zwettl, the collection includes numerous weapons, among them original "Kuenringer weapons" from the 13th century, which were discovered during excavations in Zwettl.

The City Museum – Enriched with Many Attractions On Saturday, June 21, 2003, the Zwettl City Museum, redesigned as part of the "Urban Renewal in Lower Austria" initiative, celebrated its reopening. During the interior renovation, new spaces for the City Museum were created in the attic. Part of these rooms is dedicated to the theme of "Collecting" and houses the exhibits of the "Anton Collection" in a permanent display. Among the exhibited objects are numerous unique pieces and outstanding works of art, such as a Romanesque Madonna and precious glass rarities from the Baroque period. In addition to the exhibition spaces for the "Anton Collection," a generously sized room was also created for special exhibitions. The old wooden framework of the roof truss remains almost entirely visible and contributes significantly to the ambiance of the newly created exhibition spaces.

The municipal authorities succeeded in winning over Master Hundertwasser to plan and build a fountain system in the main square. The presentation of the fountain model met with great approval from the people of Zwettl, but also with vehement rejection. In 1994, the fountain system, consisting of three main elements – the two fountain columns with collecting basins and the pavilion – was handed over to the public. It has since been a popular meeting point in the heart of the city. Friedensreich Hundertwasser died in February 2000 at the age of 71.