Stop 09 - Schmidl bakery
zoom in zoom out

The Schmidl bakery at Nr.21
The famous Wachauer Laberl

Since 1780 the Schmidl bakery and confectioners in the heart of Dürnstein has been producing bread and baked goods from selected ingredients. The bakery is one of the Wachau region’s traditional businesses and has been in the Schmidl family for generations.

Baker and confectioner Barbara Schmidl has been at the helm since 2014, making her the bakery’s second female manager to date. The first was her great-great-grandmother, who took over the running of the business after the early death of her husband and moved the bakery to its current premises at Dürnstein 21 in 1857. Now goods are baked here daily according to old recipes and new ideas – and always with a lot of love.

You can feel the connection to the region in the ingredients and products, such Wachauer cream cake, Göttweiger apricot pretzel or apricot bread. But it is probably the Wachauer ‘Laberl’ or roll, invented by Rudolf Schmidl in 1905, that is and will remain their best known product.

The inspiration for it came from Rudolf’s brother, who accompanied the Vienna Boys’ Choir as their music teacher on a concert tour to France, where he came to know and fall in love with the French baguette. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and with a superior taste – it was according to these specifications from his brother that Rudolf Schmidl created a roll that is now known far beyond the borders of the Wachau region.

The recipe is top secret and only a few people are privy to it. What is certain is that the rolls are still baked according to the original recipe and that neither caraway nor any other dominant spices are included. A little tip: all original Wachauer rolls have an ‘S’ baked into the back, so it’s worth turning it over!

Supported by the Federal Province of Lower Austria and the European Union (LEADER)

Fields marked with * are required.