Students:Day 3

Today, after a very long night (for some) we left our hostel at 9 o´clock. Our first stop was the medieval castle of Riegersburg in a region called ,,The Styrian Vulkanland“. It was the most important border fortress of Eastern Styria from the 12th century. The Riegersburg castle is situated on a basalt hill and its peak is 482 metres above sea level. The castle is owned by the Liechtenstein family. The castle is extremely well-preserved and is a fine example of how the built landscape in Austria and Styria in particular has been superbly maintained and hence helps to sustain the cultural capital of the region and strengthen human ties to the land. While at the castle, Marlene and Mario provided an introduction to the rebranding of the region as the Vulkanland, which was undertaken as a way of reviving what had become a economically backward part of Austria as a result of the Cold War and to create a greater of sense of identity and community within the local population. The Vulkanland is nowadays much more economically vibrant and thrives on a number of regionally established 'cottage' industries and locally-manufactured products.

The Zotter chocolate manufactory was our second stop, and each of us have been looking forward to it. The inventor of this manufactory is Josef Zotter. Each chocolate produced by Zotter is based on the biological diversity of cocoa beans. Zotter uses chocolate from beans, he produses chocolate from beans (bean-in-bar) and he is only one in Europe. So we can say that chocolates from Zotter manufactory are really organic and fair quality. The company has been involved in fair trade since 2004 and one year later converted to organic. In outdoor space of manufactory we can find ,,Edible ZOO. It means you can see animals and plants that are commonly used as food. But Josef Zotter sees them as human beings no products.

More images: Day Three Photos