Above Mattersburg appear the slopes of the Rosaliengebirge,
covered with the luscious purple of flowering sage. One could wish that here
spring might last for ever for us to admire the sea of blossom, cherry tree
after cherry tre intermingled with peach and apricot, and the yellow-white
blossoms of the plum, with their tangle of intertwined black twigs; great beds
of strawberries flourish in the rich and fertile soil.
Far above the little village of Forchtenau stands the
well-preserved castle Forchtenstein. It was once the seat of the Counts of
Mattersdorf, whose forebears, Simon and Bertram, came from Spain in the year
1200 with their sister Tota, of whose beauty it was said that it had no equal
throughout the world. A poet might well harbor the fancy that her beauty lives
on in the spring splendor of the flowering hedges on the Rosaliengebirge.
The Book of Austria
Ernst Marboe
Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, 1948
