Mondsee (''Moon Lake'') is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

in the

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

n part of the

Salzkammergut The Salzkammergut (; ; bar, Soizkaumaguad, label=Central Austro-Bavarian) is a resort area in Austria, stretching from the city of Salzburg eastwards along the Alpine Foreland and the Northern Limestone Alps to the peaks of the Dachstein Moun ...

and near the larger Attersee. Its southwestern shore marks the border between the states of

and

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and also between the

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (german: Nördliche Kalkalpen), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany ...

in the south and the

Sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

zone of the northern

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...

. The Drachenwand (''Dragonwall'') at the southern shore of the lake is an impressive sight. Mondsee is one of Austria's last privately owned lakes. In August 2008, owner Nicolette Wächter announced it was up for sale. In 1864, remains of

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

pile dwellings Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

were discovered in the lake.

New species discovered in Lake Mondsee

Two bacterial strains isolated from Lake Mondsee were recognized as new species and described as ''

Polynucleobacter cosmopolitanus ''Polynucleobacter cosmopolitanus'' is an aerobic, catalase- and oxidase-positive, chemo-organotrophic, nonmotile bacterium of the genus ''Polynucleobacter'', isolated from freshwater habitats in Eurasia, South America, North America, Afric ...

'' and ''

Polynucleobacter duraquae ''Polynucleobacter duraquae'' is an aerobic, chemo-organotrophic, catalase- and oxidase-positive, sometimes motile, free-living bacterium of the genus ''Polynucleobacter'', isolated from Lake Mondsee in Austria. The species represents plankton ...

'', respectively. Both species are non-

pathogenic In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a ger ...

and dwell in the lake as part of its bacterioplankton.

Fish community of Lake Mondsee

Fish living in the lake: *

esox ''Esox'' is a genus of freshwater fish commonly known as pike or pickerel. It is the type genus of the family Esocidae. The type species of the genus is '' Esox lucius'', the northern pike. ''Esox'' has been present in Laurentia (which la ...

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can als ...

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morp ...

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coast ...

* The lake char became

locally extinct Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

in the last quarter of the 20th century *

European eel The European eel (''Anguilla anguilla'') is a species of eel, a snake-like, catadromous fish. They are normally around and rarely reach more than , but can reach a length of up to in exceptional cases. Eels have been important sources of ...

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiformes, gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. It is also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, and eelpout. The species ...

* whitefish

Mondsee in fiction

Ian Fleming mentions the Mondsee in one of his

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...

novels, '' Thunderball''. In chapter six, Blofeld reports to the members of

SPECTRE Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to: Religion and spirituality * Vision (spirituality) * Apparitional experience * Ghost Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...

that their German unit has successfully retrieved (in secret) Himmler's hoard of jewels from Lake Mondsee. Arno Geiger's 2018 novel ''Beneath Drachenwand Mountain'' is set mainly in Mondsee.

Gallery

File:Mondsee by manuel gegenhuber.jpg File:Mondsee Panorama.jpg File:Mondsee_evening.jpg File:Mondsee 080727-1.jpg File:Oberburgau, panorama vanaf tussen Marienau en Unterach met der Mondsee op de voorgrond foto7 2017-08-12 15.20.jpg File:Oberburgau, panorama vanaf tussen Marienau en Pichlauhof met de Mondsee op de voorgrond foto52017-08-12 15.38.jpg File:Oberburgau, panorama vanaf tussen Pichlauhof en Marienau met de Mondsee op de voorgrond foto62017-08-12 15.46.jpg

References

Lakes of Upper Austria {{UpperAustria-geo-stub