Iron Age Danube Route: 20 Museen und 1 Zoo in Graz und der Steiermark

Iron Age Danube Route

The Iron Age Danube Route addresses one of the most fragile, though imposing and attractive prehistoric archaeological phenomenon, the Iron Age landscapes. Characterized by monumental structures, such as burial mound cemeteries, flat cemeteries, fortified hilltop settlements and oppida, as well as elements indicating the complex organization of space, Iron Age landscapes belong to the period between the 9th and the end of the 1st century BC.

In addition, the Iron Age is a period marked by an extraordinary corpus of movable, as well as intangible heritage, which is kept in numerous museums of the Danube region, including the most important regional and national institutions.

Find out more about the Iron Age Danube Route

Cultural route of the Council of Europe, Iron-Age-Danube-Route

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The first concept for the Iron Age Danube Route stemmed from the Danube Transnational Programme Monumentalized Early Iron Age Landscapes in the Danube River Basin INTERREG project. After the project ended, the partnership continued with the support of the Routes4U project of the Council of Europe. The Iron Age Danube Route aims to connect and jointly promote regions, archaeological sites, and museums, which present Iron Age heritage in the Danube region. In order to do so, high standards for the protection, research and presentation of this heritage have been established.

Compiling existing sources of knowledge and creating a strong interdisciplinary and international network of expert institutions from Austria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia in the fields of archaeology, cultural heritage protection, tourism, as well as local stakeholders, the Iron Age Danube Route Association was founded in July 2020 with the aim of further development and management of the IADR. In May 2021, the Iron Age Danube Route was awarded the Council of Europe Cultural Route certificate. It brings together 30 members from 7 countries in the Danube region.

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