The Sternstein Mountain is situated in the north of

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in the districts of

Bad Leonfelden Bad Leonfelden is a municipality in the district of Urfahr-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Steven Beller, author of ''A Concise History of Austria'', who has family links to Bad Leonfelden, cites episodes from the town's histor ...

and Vorderweißenbach. On its north flank it also reaches into the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. As measured by the height above sea level of its summit it is 1125 meters high. View of Sternstein from the east

Geology

Geologically it belongs to the

Bohemian Massif The Bohemian Massif ( cs, Česká vysočina or ''Český masiv'', german: Böhmische Masse or ''Böhmisches Massiv'') is a geomorphological province in Central Europe. It is a large massif stretching over most of the Czech Republic, eastern Germ ...

and is the most eastern part of the

Bohemian Forest The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as Šumava () and in German as Böhmerwald, is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in ...

. As the average temperature in the surroundings of the mountain over the year is less than 6 °C, it is one of the coldest regions of Upper Austria. The municipalities of Vorderweißenbach and

get their water supplies from springs arising from lower parts of the mountain.

Observation Tower

In the year 1898 a 20 meter high Observation Tower was built on top of the mountain, in honor to the

K.u.K. The phrase Imperial and Royal (German: ''kaiserlich und königlich'', ), typically abbreviated as ''k. u. k.'', ''k. und k.'', ''k. & k.'' in German (the "und" is always spoken unabbreviated), ''cs. és k. (császári és királyi)'' in Hungari ...

emperor

Franz Joseph I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

. Today it is still one of the main tourist attractions of the region and can be reached from several hiking paths from all sides of the mountain.

Sports

During the winter the mountain can be used for winter sports. There are four kilometers of slopes on the east flank of the mountain and the Sternstein GmbH operates a combined funicular and chair lift with a capacity of 2850 persons/hour to get to the top of the mountain. Also cross country skiing is very popular in the area of the Sternstein. During the other seasons the mountain is a destination for hikers and mountain bikers. Furthermore, it is situated along a long-distance hiking path, the Nordwaldkammweg.

References

{{coord, 48, 33, 35, N, 14, 16, 3, E, display=title, region:AT_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki Mountains of Upper Austria Bohemian Forest