‘Hirschbirnweg Trail’ – Pöllauer Tal Nature Park

The Pöllauer Tal Nature Park (near Hartberg in Styria) is well-known for its fruit trees that are scattered across the landscape. Apart from several other traditional fruit varieties, the meadows with scattered fruit trees and avenues in this area are particularly characterised by the ‘Hirschbirne’, an old Styrian pear variety. This pear is not only an important element of the landscape, but it also provides the raw materials for a large number of high-quality and tasty products such as pear juice, pear brandy, perry and pear sparkling wine as well as chocolates, chutneys and jellies. On behalf of the nature park, E.C.O. is designing a themed walking trail to the ‘Hirschbirne’ pear trees. The trail was already laid out as a circular trail through the fruit tree populations quite a few years ago and now it is to be further developed to become a modern theme trail for locals and guests alike. The redesigning of the trail is being carried out in close cooperation with farmers, tourism managers, experts and representatives of the nature park.