Salzkammergut

The Salzkammergut, a much-frequented tourist area of Alpine and Pre-Alpine scenery with numerous lakes, extends from Salzburg in the west to the Dachstein in the south and is bounded on the east by the Almtal. Most of it lies within Upper Austria, but it also reaches into Salzburg province (Wolfgangsee and Fuschlsee) and Styria (the Aussee area). The name originally applied only to a salt working area around Bad Isch, where visitors can still take a brine bath. The particular attraction of this mountain region lies in the sharp contrasts between its striking peaks and sheer rock faces on the one hand and its more than 40 lakes, some of them of considerable size, on the other. The Attersee, the Mondsee and the Wolfgangsee lie in the heart of the Salzkammergut, the best view of which is to be had from the Schafberg (reached from St Wolfgang on an old-fashioned cog railroad). Other lakes in the region, the beds of which were formed by ice-age glaciers, include the Grundlsee, Toplitzsee, Altausseer See, Fuschlsee, Hallstätter See and Zeller See. The Salzkammergut, a cradle of Austrian culture, is very popular indeed with tourists. Everywhere visitors will find bathing beaches, camping sites and rowing and sailing boats for rental, as well as facilities for tennis, riding, paragliding, hang gliding, walking and climbing. Numerous spots, including Mondsee, St Gilgen, St Wolfgang, Bad Ischl (once the favorite summer residence of the Emperor Francis Joseph) and Bad Goisern are now all much frequented by tourists. It can also be most interesting to visit an old salt-works, in Altausee for example.

The Alzkammergut Cultural Landscape was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.