Wagram

Summary The southern declivity of the Parndorfer Platte, a gravel terrasse of about 200 square kilometres in the northern part of Burgenland, is called Wagram. At the small structured area of the Wagram the Parndorfer Platte declines 50 metres and merges to the basin of the Neusiedler See. The prominent features of the Wagram are small chasms and dents which, however, have lost most of their natural Asperity. In former times large spaces of precious arid grassland covered most of the Wagram the cultural landscape was formed for centuries by grazing. Since World War II, the largest part of the Wagram has been transformed into an intensively agriculturally used area. Most of the arid grassland is already lost. The Wagram is an important habitat of the bee-eater (Merops apiaster), one of the most colorful birds in Europe. They build their nests into the steep faces of the Wagram. Due to the fact that lots of these steep faces have been broken off or sheeted, the population of the bee-eater has declined during the last decades.