Oberberg - Panorama View

The Oberberg farm (approx. 860 m) is located on a terraced plateau of the greywacke zone in the Ore of the Alps UNESCO Global Geopark, approx. 300 metres above the Salzach valley floor, in the municipality of Bischofshofen. The rocks of the greywacke zone are covered here by a Würm Ice Age ground moraine that is around 20,000 years old. From this vantage point you have a marvellous panoramic view of the Hochkönig, Hagen and Tennengebirge mountain ranges. The gentle peaks of the Hochkeil and Jagerköpfl can be seen in the foreground.

The Hochkönig massif belongs geologically to the Northern Calcareous Alps and is mainly built up from mountainous Dachstein limestone. This rock was formed during the Upper Triassic, approximately 200 million years ago, when coral, calcareous sponges and algae formed reefs in a tropical sea. The reef in the area of the Mandlwand is particularly spectacular, a ridge ensemble broken up into towers and columns. The wooded Hochkeil (1,782 m) is part of greywake zone. The summit levels comprise what is known as the Fellersbach formation (Palaeozoic, reddish-purple clay slate and quartzite).

Kids

The legend of the tunnel in the Buchberg

Many, many years ago there was a young priest called Hieronymus Pocher who said mass in the Buchbergkircherl church above Bischofshofen.

The farmer's wife from the neighbouring fiefdom sat there with her beautiful daughter Agathe at every church service. This is where the priest and the young woman first met. One day, during Easter confession, Hieronymus and Agathe confessed their love for each other. At the same time, however, they also realised that their situation was hopeless. Nobody was allowed to find out about it, otherwise the priest would have been transferred to another place immediately.

So Hieronymus decided to dig a tunnel from the Buchbergkircherl to the hill behind the Lehenhof when he wasn't busy in the church. After two years of hard labour, the tunnel was finished and the two could embrace. However, the hard work took its toll on the priest's health. The dust and sulphurous rock had taken their toll on his lungs. One day, when he was waiting for Agathe again and she couldn't come, he collapsed in the tunnel and passed away. Agathe buried him in the tunnel and visited his grave every day. Nobody knew where Hieronymus remained. It was not until many, many years later that the priest's skeleton was found in the tunnel.