It is located in the Gegend valley of the Nock Mountains range at the shore of the Brennsee (or Feldsee), between the Mirnock massif in the southwest (el.

The hidden Gegend was not populated until the High Middle Ages, when about 1300 its sunny northern side was stubbed and the name of the valley was first mentioned in a 1308 deed.

While large estates were held by the Carinthian Counts of Ortenburg, the village called Rauth (from German: Roden, root out) was the most important settlement in the whole area for a long time.

The remote Gegend valley had long been a centre of Crypto-protestantism, until the 1781 Patent of Toleration issued by Emperor Joseph II ended the Counter-Reformation persecutions.

The lake called Brennsee was named after a local tavern and distillery (Brenn) which was founded in 1632.