Rappenlochschlucht, Narrow gorge in Dornbirn, Austria

The Rappenlochschlucht is a gorge about 500 metres long in the Ebnit valley in Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, cut by the Dornbirner Ach through limestone and marl of the Bregenzerwald mountains. It runs from the Gütle industrial area past the site of the former Rappenloch bridge to the Rappenlochschlucht dam, which holds back the Staufensee. Walkways and footbridges run along the rock walls.

The first bridge over the gorge, a wooden arched structure, was built in 1791 to create a road to Ebnit. It burned in 1845 and was replaced by a covered wooden bridge. The fifth Rappenlochbrücke opened on 6 June 2023 after construction from August 2021. A rockfall on 10 May 2011 brought down about 15,000 cubic metres of stone and destroyed the bridge.

The name may derive from ravens or the Waldrapp, an ibis that died out in the Alps in the late Middle Ages and kept its last colonies in narrow rock gorges. Since 1905 the gorge path has been open to hikers, and the rock walls have repeatedly served as a backdrop for art actions, including a wire sculpture by Dornbirn artist Martin E. Greil at the entrance.

The path runs from the Gütle entrance, past the Rappenloch bridge, to the Rappenlochschluchtsperre dam at the Staufensee. Since the 2011 rockfall the walkway is a steel structure partly suspended above the debris; it was fully reopened on 24 August 2013. The Dornbirner Ach can carry up to 246 cubic metres per second in flood.

On 10 May 2011 at 12:48, about 15,000 cubic metres of rock fell into the gorge and tore down the Rappenloch bridge; nobody was on the bridge or below it. A military D-bridge served as a temporary crossing from 16 June 2011, and the hiking walkway reopened on 24 August 2013.