The Nationalpark Donauauen (National Park Danube Flood Plains) is a national park in Eastern Austria, spreading from Vienna to the Austrian-Slovakian border. The National Park Donauauen is 9,300 hectares big and follows the course of the Danube for approximately 38 kilometres. It is a very narrow piece of landscape: The widest part is only four kilometres. It became a National Park only in 1996, when the IUCAN-status of "Category II" was assigned to it. Apart from Vienna, there are several communities in Lower Austria that own a share of the National Park Donauauen: Groß-Enzersdorf, Orth an der Donau, Eckartsau, Engelhartstetten, Hainburg, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Petronell-Carnuntum, Regelsbrunn, Haslau-Maria Ellend, Fischamend and Schwechat.