Lake Wolfgang (german: Wolfgangsee) 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 large ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

that lies mostly within the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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 is one of the best known lakes in 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 Mou ...

resort region. The municipalities on its shore are

Strobl Strobl (or Strobl am Wolfgangsee) is a municipality of the Salzburg-Umgebung District (''Flachgau''), in the northeastern portion of the Austrian state of Salzburg, right on the border with Upper Austria. It comprises the Katastralgemeinden of Aig ...

, St. Gilgen with the villages of Abersee and Ried as well as the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

of St. Wolfgang in the state of

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 ...

. The town and the lake are named after Saint

Wolfgang of Regensburg Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg ( la, Wolfgangus; 934 – October 31, 994 AD) was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint of the Catholic (canonized in 1052) and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is regarded ...

, who, according to legend, built the first church here in the late 10th century.

Overview

Kaiser Franz Josef 1873 Wolfgangsee Austria

Lake Wolfgang stretches about 10.5 kilometres from the northwest to the southeast. It is divided into two parts by a peninsula, called ''die Enge'' (the Narrow), situated roughly in the middle of its southern shore opposite St. Wolfgang, where the breadth is no more than 200 metres. The western portion of the lake at St. Gilgen is known as the ''Abersee''. The lake has an area of about 12.9 to 13.1 km² and is surrounded by the Salzkammergut mountain range. On the northern side, the Schafberg is located. A

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...

, the

Schafbergbahn The Schafberg Railway (german: Schafbergbahn) is a metre gauge cog railway in Upper Austria and Salzburg leading from Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut up to the Schafberg (1,783 m). With a total length of 5.85 km it gains about 1,200 m in h ...

leads up to the summit at 1,782 m. Due to the steep shore at its foot only a footpath connects St. Wolfgang and the village of Ried with St. Gilgen along the ''Falkensteinwand'', the set of the ''Bergpsalmen'' ("mountain psalms") lyric anthology written by

Joseph Viktor von Scheffel Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist. Biography He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the ...

in 1870. In the south and southwest of Lake Wolfgang lies the ''Osterhorngruppe'', with heights up to 1,800 metres. Directly south of St. Gilgen rises the ''Zwölferhorn'' (1,522 m), which can be visited by cable car. The settlements around the lake, especially St. Wolfgang and St. Gilgen are popular resort towns, mainly in summer. The

Gasthaus A Gasthaus (also called ''Gasthof'', ''Landhaus'', or ''Pension'') is a German-style inn or tavern with a bar, a restaurant, banquet facilities and hotel rooms for rent. Gasthäuser are typically found in smaller towns and are often family-own ...

''Weißes Rössl'' at St. Wolfgang is the set of the famous 1897 operetta ''

The White Horse Inn ''The White Horse Inn'' (or ''White Horse Inn'') (German title: ''Im weißen Rößl'' ) is an operetta or musical comedy by Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz in collaboration with a number of other composers and writers, set in the picturesque Salz ...

'' by

Ralph Benatzky Ralph Benatzky (5 June 1884 – 16 October 1957), born in Mährisch Budwitz ( Moravské Budějovice) as Rudolph Franz rantišekJosef Benatzky, was an Austrian composer of Moravian origin. He composed operas and operettas, such as '' Casanova ...

, performed throughout the world and filmed several times. Furthermore, the area around the lake was the location of several ''

Heimatfilm ' (, German for "homeland-films"; German singular: ') were films of a genre popular in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. ''Heimat'' can be translated as "home" (in the geographic sense), "hometown" or "homela ...

'' movies, suggesting an untouched alpine idyll. Because Lake Wolfgang has been the vacation resort of former German chancellor

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

for many years, the film director

Christoph Schlingensief Christoph Maria Schlingensief (24 October 1960 – 21 August 2010) was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals ...

made the lake a site of his ''Chance 2000'' project of 1998 when he invited "Germany's four million

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

" to take a bath in the lake and flood Kohl's residence.

Transportation

The ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...

'' ''B158'' from

Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haide ...

runs along the southern shore of Lake Wolfgang. In St. Gilgen the ''B154'' highway branches off, leading to the '' A1 Westautobahn'' motorway (

European route E55 European route E55 is an E-route. It passes through the following cities: Helsingborg … Helsingør – Copenhagen – Køge – Vordingborg – Nykøbing Falster – Gedser … Rostock – Berlin – Lübbenau – Dresden – Teplice – Prag ...

and E60). The former ''

Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn The SKGLB-museum is a railway museum in Mondsee in Upper Austria. It shows relics of the 1957 closed Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn (abbreviation: SKGLB) that was a railway line in gauge track from Salzburg to Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian Germ ...

'' narrow gauge railway to Salzburg went out of service in 1957. Ship transport on the lake is provided by the ''Salzburg AG''

public utility A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

company, which runs six vessels.

References

External links

Guide to Lake Wolfgang
from the Wolfgangsee Tourismus Gesellschaft {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfgang Lakes of Salzburg (state) Mountain lakes Lakes of Upper Austria

Overview

Transportation

See also

References

External links