Capture the big picture

... when the Roman general Drusus the Elder, adoptive son of Augustus, began to develop the paths of the Celts, Raetians and Etruscans into the first real road across the Alps - the Via Claudia Augusta.

It is the only Roman road in the central Alpine region whose ancient name is still known today. It led over the Reschenpass into the Inn valley to Imst, then through the Gurgltal valley, over the Fernpass and further on, following the Lech river to Füssen and Augsburg.

The Starkenberger Panoramic Route follows sections of this route over and over again. It goes past the ancestral seat of the Starkenberger through the mystical Salvenklamm full of legends and stories, before the path through the bog of Sinnesbrunn leads down to the natural gem Gurgltal. Mighty glaciers formed the valley during the last ice-age and created a unique landscape and valuable natural space for rare plants and animals. The most well-known zoological peculiarity is the occurrence of the Alpine scorpion (also German scorpion, Euscorpius germanus) on the sunny, south-exposed steep slopes of the Antelsberg between Tarrenz and Nassereith.

Like turquoise-green emeralds, the lakes Fernsteinsee and Samaranger See lie at the foot of the Fernpass and captivate the eye. The Fernsteinsee lake belongs to the castle and hotel resort Fernstein, which lies on the western shore of the lake. In the lake reside the ruins of the hunting lodge Sigmundsburg.

The Fernstein fortress is mentioned for the first time in the year 1288 in the sovereign princely bar. Already at that time, the fortification had the function of a customs office, as states a complaint by the municipality of Imst in 1312, after merchants had to wait half a day at the gate.

The Fernpass was an important pass on the Via Claudia Augusta. This made the presence of horse changing stations and other infrastructure necessary. Just above the Fernstein castle clear ruts can be seen in the rocky bottom of the route, witnesses of many years of intense cart traffic.