Introducing our new series #AustrianExplorer! As mentioned last week, today we are launching this new series as a follow-up to our focus on iconic landmarks in Austria #WahrzeichenWednesdays. Follow us as we travel throughout Austria and explore both famous and lesser known treasures and “sights worth seeing” #Sehenswürdigkeiten.  

We begin this week in Styria #Steiermark with the thermal baths of Bad Blumau. Designed by famed Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1993, the hotel and spa opened in 1997. Its hot mineral waters were discovered during exploratory oil drilling in the 1970s.

The artist Hundertwasser is known for his environmentalism and his manifesto against the straight line and “rationalism in architecture,” among other such manifestos railing against normative architecture. In Bad Blumau as in other examples of Hundertwasser’s designs, the floors are wavy; windows and other corners never meet at right angles. Pushing for architecture to exist in greater harmony with nature, Hundertwasser's designs often feature trees sprouting from the windows of buildings and plants growing from the roofs. This focus on ecological harmony can also be found in #BadBlumau.

Hotel Rogner in Bad Blumau

Finally, if you make the trek out to Bad Blumau, it’s worth visiting Europe’s oldest oak tree! The #dickeOachn, as it's called by locals, is over 1000 years old and requires at least seven adults holding hands to encircle the trunk and give it a hug!

© Wikicommons / Intentionalart (photo 1, 3, 5); Wikicommons / Enrico Carcasci (photo 2, 7); Wikicommons / Rogner Bad Blumau (photo 4); Wikicommons / John Menard (photo 6); Wikicommons / Claus Ableiter (photo 8).