“Am wilden Wasser” | 50 Euro | 2022 | Goldmünze

The water of the Gesaeuse

Why is man fascinated by gold and everything that sparkles? A sparkle indicated to our ancestors: There is water! And how much water there is in the Styrian Gesäuse! And how wildly moving and untamed it is!

In the Gesäuse National Park, which has existed since 2002 and is the youngest of Austria's six national parks, nature is left to its own devices, and it stages itself as a spectacle. Here, the Enns River violently breaks its way through the Northern Alps; steep and rugged mountains tower on both sides.

The wonderfully winding valley allows countless animal and plant species to live in abundance. For example, a black-colored, land-dwelling species of caudate: the Alpine salamander; because of its rarity, it is under strict protection in Austria.

Text courtesy of the Austrian Mint.