Agriculture in Höflein

Here, amid the Rotenbergen vineyards, you have a lovely view of Höflein. The region around Carnuntum was farmed in Roman times and the Celts kept their vineyards here before that.

Today the farmland of Höflein is dominated by fields and vineyards. If you face east you can see the most fertile ground in the municipal area. On Mitterfeld, Huteide and Gaisbühen there is mostly arable farming. The view is characterised above all by wheat, sugar beet, sunflowers, soya beans and corn. To the southeast where Höflein borders the municipality of Bruck an der Leitha, the earth is shallower and more complex due to the varying altitudes.

To the southwest, towards Göttlesbrunn the undulating terrain is mainly used for viticulture, with vineyards all the way up to forests of Maria Ellend.

If we turn our gaze to the north, we see the border of the municipality of Scharndorf. Here the earth is lighter and sandier with more stone and gravel and less able to retain water. The view here extends to the Parndorf plate, the Hundsheim mountains and even into Slovakia.

The Rotenbergen wine area has another special aspect – the old gravel pit. Its rich grassland is home to the protected pasque flower for example, which covers all surfaces with its purple blooms each spring. In the loess walls a colony of richly-coloured migratory birds have settled and conservation methods are in place to protect them. The bee-eaters arrive from the savannahs of East and South Africa at the beginning of May and built breeding tunnels of up to 1.2m in the loess walls. You can only observe these shy birds at a distance. They prefer habitats rich in insects with grassland, single trees and fallows. After mid-August the bee-eaters leave Höflein once more – until the next year.