First Key to the Gate of Time

Circular enclosures count among the oldest monumental structures in Central Europe. Built some 1500 years before Stonehenge and 2000 years before the pyramids of Egypt, these prehistoric monuments spread from north-eastern Hungary via Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria far into Germany.

So far, about a hundred of these cult sites, enclosed by ditches and timber palisades, have been identified, almost half of them in Lower Austria. Enshrouded in mystery, the structures are in a bad state of preservation due to the materials used, yet archaeologists, deploying high-tech methods, are unearthing the secrets of their ingenious builders. Already it has become clear that these Neolithic temples are the oldest calendar buildings and astronomical observatories found so far.