Austria · AT

Soldatenfriedhof Blumau

Set on the flat, gravelly plain of the Steinfeld south of Vienna, the Soldatenfriedhof Blumau is a quiet military cemetery holding nearly 4,500 dead of the First and Second World Wars. It is the last collective war-graves cemetery built in Austria by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (the German War Graves Commission), and it remains a place of remembrance and reflection rather than sightseeing. Rows of natural stone crosses of grey Waldviertel granite mark the graves, divided into four blocks and screened from the surrounding landscape by planted banks and hedges. At the centre rises a forged steel high cross, the visual and spiritual focal point of the ground; the dead came here largely from graves in the Wiener Neustadt area and the wider region around Vienna. The site sits at the edge of a military training area beside the Blumau municipal cemetery, an easy stop for visitors exploring the memorial landscape of Lower Austria's Industrieviertel. The entrance, with its inscribed tablets naming who rests here, sets the solemn tone of the visit.