Back to the roots of sustainability

Waidhofen an der Ybbs has long been known for its wealth of game. Apparently, the name of the town goes back to a hunting lodge (Waidhof) built by Count Konrad von Peilstein in the 12th century so he could hunt undisturbed.

Only a few kilometres outside the town centre, at the end of a narrow ditch, is the forest estate of Hinterlueg. A basin covered with predominantly mixed forest, it stretches over an area of 141 hectares to the Upper-Austrian border. At the heart of the forest is a stately hunting lodge and a farm from the 15th century.
From 1949 until the beginning of the 1990s, the forest eked out a lonely existence. Hinterlueg was brought to life again through the work of Alfred Michael Beck, who acquired the property in 1992 and restored it to its former state, re-establishing farming and forestry on a new, sustainable economic basis.

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