Wildungsmauer

Wildungsmauer is a village of the Scharndorf municipality, in the district of Bruck an der Leitha, on the right bank of the Danube at kilometre 1894.72. The Danube water level at Wildungsmauer is read on a gauge that also records discharge and water temperature; its zero has stood at 139.48 metres since 2004, and the catchment above it covers 103,993 square kilometres. Navigation marks are 155 centimetres for low water and 605 for high water, while the HNWL threshold, which stops pleasure craft, climbs to 895.

The Gauge in the National Park

The reach here runs free: between Freudenau and the Slovak border there is no lock, and the bank belongs to the Donau-Auen National Park. Once the water passes 600 centimetres, the police may stop navigation on the stretch between Freudenau and Slovakia; for pleasure craft the ban starts earlier, at HNWL. The forecast viadonau publishes for this gauge stops at low water.

The 2013 Flood and the Low Waters

In June 2013 the Danube reached 885 centimetres here, on 6 June at 05:45, with 11,050 cubic metres a second; the flood stood 118 centimetres above the one of 2002, which had stopped at 767. Low water followed another curve: the minimum of the official series 1996–2023 is 17 centimetres, on 9 December 2003. On 22 October 2018 the gauge fell to 89, in August 2022 it reached 121, and on 5 October 2026 the daily mean was 67; at 08:15 on 25 October 2026 it showed 95.

A Village Without a Bridge

The village has neither a bridge nor a ferry: downstream, ten kilometres away, the Danube is crossed at Hainburg, and upstream, also ten kilometres away, the Orth–Haslau ferry links the two banks. The S7 train connects Wildungsmauer with Vienna and the airport every hour, and the municipality has 1,159 inhabitants. Forty-seven kilometres upstream, the Korneuburg gauge shows where the wave comes from; fifteen kilometres downstream, the Devín gauge marks the entry into Slovakia, and twenty-seven kilometres on, the gauge at Bratislava ties the river to the Slovak capital.

Since 1996 the station has logged 10,850 station-days, averaging 252 cm; 1,353 of them stood below low water, 62 above high water. The highest daily value came on 6 June 2013, at 872 cm, the lowest on 9 September 2003, at 28 cm. At 22:15 on 25 October 2026 the gauge read 99 cm, 89 below the day's normal of 188; the forecast gives 100, 99, 100 and 98.