sacredart and organ hiking: hiking

Admire the sacred works of art, listen to the sounds of bells and organs and enjoy the culinary specialties of the church innkeepers.

Hike from church to church in the Pöllauer Tal Nature Park and ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee region using the digital tour guide (Outdooractive app). Once you arrive at the church, download the free “Hearonymus” app (“Churches in the ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee and Pöllau Valley Nature Park”) and your smartphone has become an audio guide.

Organ hiking with digital tour guide and audio guide

With your smartphone, you can not only listen to the bells, organs and church tours, but also have a digital tour planner on the hiking trails from one church to another.
We would like to invite you to combine your hike with art and cultural enjoyment in the Pöllau Valley Nature Park and the ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee. This booklet contains twelve tour suggestions for which you can use the digital tour guide in the free outdooractive app on your smartphone in addition to the route markings. The easiest way to download the individual hiking routes is to use the QR codes.
Hike from church to church in the Pöllauer Tal Nature Park and ApfelLand Stubenbergsee region. Once you arrive at the church, the cultural treasure of Eastern Styria, you will get to know the advantages of an individual guided tour with the sound of bells and organs. Download the free “Hearonymus” app, set the “Churches in ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee and Pöllauer Tal Nature Park” in the “Guides” section and your smartphone has become an audio guide.

Magazine “Treasures of Eastern Styria”

The sacred treasures of the ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee region and Pöllauer Tal Nature Park are presented in wonderful pictures. An elaborately designed 80-page magazine, for which all the churches were photographed inside and out with drones, presents the impressive architecture since the Gothic period. Together with the texts by historian Gottfried Allmer, it provides a large-format outline of the church and building history of Eastern Styria's sacred treasures. In addition to the churches, the regional gastronomic offerings are also presented in the form of the “Kirchenwirte”. A second edition was printed in English for international guests.

Church folder

Visit the cultural treasures in ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee and the Pöllau Valley Nature Park. Brief descriptions and opening times of the churches will help you. The two small “church folders” are clearly laid out pocket booklets containing the most important information for church visits. With specially designed displays, they are available in the churches and also at tourist events. For children, there is a mini coloring book in which they can color in the buildings. Panels for the church showcases and videos on the tourism homepages complement the advertising material.

Audio guide

Download church tours, bell and organ sounds to your smartphone with the free “Hearonymus” app. What was previously only possible with a rental device in all major museums can now be experienced by anyone with their smartphone: For the 14 churches in ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee and Pöllauer Tal Nature Park, an “audio guide” from the Viennese company “Hearonymus” was reviewed and provided with recordings of the bells and organs. To this end, all the organs were elaborately tuned by organ builders and Prof. Josef Hofer recorded the pieces that match the construction period of the respective instrument. Feistritztal-born historian Gottfried Allmer provided the church, organ and bell information, which has been processed into a total of 42 chapters with texts and sound recordings. This results in over 2 hours of guided tours through the sacred buildings of the Pöllau Valley Nature Park and ApfelLandes Stubenbergsee regions.
Using the QR code, which is printed in the showcases of the churches and on the advertising material, or by entering “Hearonymus” in the app store, the program can be downloaded with any smartphone and the guide “Churches in the ApfelLand Stubenbergsee and Pöllau Valley Nature Park” can be opened. Using various search criteria or simply clicking on the map, the individual churches are found and can be listened to free of charge. This means that church tours with the sound of organs and bells are also available for individual guests to the region and also before and after a visit to the church.

Contact: Churches of the Pöllau Valley Nature Park regions +43 (0)3335 4210 and ApfelLand-Stubenbergsee +43 (0)3176 8882