Austria Guide
Burgenland
The diminutive province of Burgenland ( 
www.burgenland.at ) is the easternmost and the least Austrian Land of all. An integral part of Hungary from the seventeenth century, it was handed over to Austria at the end of World War I, only after a controversial plebiscite which left the region's natural capital, Ödenburg (Sopron), in Hungary. Naturally enough, with an awkward salient virtually squeezing Burgenland in two, the province faced enormous problems, not just in terms of communications but in forging any sense of collective identity. Add to these the Russian occupation and the imposition of the Iron Curtain after World War II, and it's easy to see why the last couple of decades have been by far the best yet in the region's history.
In the absence of Ödenburg, the small provincial town of Eisenstadt took over the regional administrative role. What brings most people to the town nowadays, however, is its affiliation with Josef Haydn, who spent some thirty years here in the second half of the eighteenth century, under the patronage of the powerful Hungarian Esterházy family. After Eisenstadt, the most popular destination in Burgenland is the nearby reed-fringed Neusiedler See, the country's largest inland lake and the only one in Europe with no natural outlet. For the Austrians, this is the closest the country gets to a coastline, and many come here purely and simply for a fix of beach culture. The wine-growing villages around the See have a distinctly Hungarian feel to them, as does the flat puszta (steppe) landscape and the consistently warm summer weather. The rest of Burgenland, south of the region's five-kilometre-thin "waist", receives a tiny fraction of the tourists that pack the resorts of the Neusiedler See – and with some justification. The rolling, forested countryside is attractive enough, but there are very few places you'd go out of your way to visit.
Highlights
1 Neusiedler See Fringed by reed beds and vineyards, this steppe lake is perfect for cycling around, birdwatching and watersports.
2 Rust The prettiest of the Neusiedler See wine villages with a well-preserved Altstadt and the tiny medieval Fischerkirche.
3 Taubenkobel, Schützen Top-notch Pannonian food you can eat al fresco in the restaurant's beautiful garden.
4 Birdlife, Seewinkel Austria's top birding destination is home to spoonbills, egrets, storks and the great bustard, Europe's heaviest bird.
5 Chamber Music Festival, Lockenhaus Wonderful Kammermusikfest set in a small town with a glorious Baroque church and an impressive medieval fortress.