Unterleiten, Farmstead in Sankt Jakob in Defereggen, Austria

Unterleiten is a single farmstead of the Oberrotte fraction in St. Jakob in Defereggen, on the sunny floor of the Defereggental north of the Schwarzach. It consists of the Häuselis farm (Oberrotte 11), a two-storey cross-divided Einhof with a veranda and a barn, plus two single-storey outbuildings across the Defereggentalstraße (L25) and a sawmill with two buildings.

Unterleiten grew out of the medieval Schwaige Leiten, a freeholding whose name comes from the Middle High German word for a mountain slope. Its landlord was Schloss Bruck in Lienz. Statistics long grouped it with Grünmoos: 53 inhabitants in seven buildings in 1951, 27 in six houses in 1961. By 1971 it was listed as a single farm with two residents, unchanged in 1981, and it is probably uninhabited today.

The name Leiten comes from the Middle High German word for a mountain slope, referring to the terrain of this single farmstead. The farm Häuselis (Oberrotte 11) is a two-storey Einhof with living quarters and a veranda in the southern half and a stable and barn entrance in the northern half. A wayside cross in a closed wooden box, set up after 1859, stands beside the two farm buildings across the road.

The hermitage can be reached from Sankt Jakob in Defereggen, which offers regular transport connections and visitor information. The route requires good mountain hiking preparation and appropriate equipment for alpine conditions.

Unterleiten is not a hermitage but a single farmstead of the Oberrotte fraction, and it is probably uninhabited today: since 1991 Statistik Austria has no longer recorded its population separately. In 1971 and 1981 it was listed as a single farm with two residents and one building.