Wörthersee

The Wörthersee is the largest lake in Carinthia and one of the warmest bathing lakes in the Alps; in high summer the water often exceeds 25 degrees. Fashionable resorts such as Velden and Pörtschach, lidos and a turquoise-green colour make it the most popular summer destination in the south. From the nearby Pyramidenkogel the view reaches far across the lake.

Highlights

• One of the warmest bathing lakes in the Alps
• Fashionable resorts Velden and Pörtschach
• Turquoise-green, warm water
• View from the Pyramidenkogel

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Practical info

Background & History

Lake Wörth is considered the warmest of the great Alpine lakes and the heart of the sun-blessed Carinthia, as the Romans called southern Carinthia. Its water reaches pleasant bathing temperatures as early as summer, which made the lake a fashionable summer retreat for the Austrian bourgeoisie and nobility in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Magnificent villas in the playful style of the so-called Wörthersee architecture arose on its shores, and places such as Velden and Pörtschach earned their reputation as a meeting point of the rich and beautiful.

The composer Johannes Brahms spent several summers here and drew inspiration for some of his works from the cheerfulness of the landscape. On the southern shore the small peninsula with the pilgrimage church of Maria Wörth juts into the lake, a venerable sacred site whose origins reach far back into the Middle Ages. In Klagenfurt at the eastern end, the famous Lindwurm, a stone dragon, watches over the town, its legend telling of a winged monster said to have once plagued the marshes around the lake. In more recent times the lake became known to a wide public through a popular television series that brought the summer bustle on its shores into people's living rooms and cemented its reputation as a cheerful holiday region. Thus Lake Wörth combines a Mediterranean way of life with old history and legend into one of Austria's most popular summer destinations.