Lake Millstatt (, sometimes written "Millstättersee") is a lake in
Carinthia
Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...
,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
.
Geography
It is situated at 588
metres above the Adriatic
Metres above the Adriatic (, , Serbo-Croatian: ''Metara iznad Jadrana'') is the vertical datum used in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia to measure elevation, referring to the ave ...
(1,929 ft), north of the
Drava
The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe. Valley within the
Gurktal Alps (
Nock Mountains) range of the
Central Eastern Alps, near the town of
Spittal an der Drau
Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Districts of Austria, Bezirk'') b ...
. With a surface area of Lake Millstatt is the second largest lake of Carinthia (after
Lake Wörth), though with a depth of the most voluminous by far.

Its steep shore gives the lake a
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...
-like character. The Millstätter Alpe mountains in the north up to protect it from cold winds, so the water temperature can reach in summer. The narrow and long surface stretches over from east to west. In the south the wooded Hochgosch plateau, with a breadth of and an elevation of , divides the lake from the parallel Drava Valley.
The name derives from the market town
Millstatt on the northern shore. Other municipalities near the lake are
Seeboden and
Radenthein
Radenthein () is a town in Spittal an der Drau District, in the Austrian state of Carinthia.
Geography
The town is situated in the Gegend valley (''Gegendtal'') of the Nock Mountains range (part of the Gurktal Alps), stretching to the eastern sh ...
-Döbriach. The shaded southern shore, a
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
since 1970, is almost uninhabited.
Geology
The lake arose in the
last glacial (''Würm'') period, about 20,000 years ago, when a northern offset of the Drava
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
melted in situ and left
dead ice with extended
fluvial
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
deposits at its western rim damming
meltwater
Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...
. The continuous erosive downcutting by the discharge of the
kettle
A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a device specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle''. There are two main types: the ''stovetop kettle'', which uses heat from a cooktop, hob, and the ...
into the Lieser River over the following millennia created a trench that considerably lowered the water level.
The Millstatt area is part of the
Austroalpine nappes, consisting of
gneiss
Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...
and
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...
s with
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...
deposits, which arose by the
metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing Rock (geology), rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or Texture (geology), texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated ...
of
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...
and
clay minerals
Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces.
Clay mineral ...
, probably in the
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...
period. Higher reaches comprise
garnet
Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
Garnet minerals, while sharing similar physical and crystallographic properties, exhibit a wide range of chemical compositions, de ...
schists including several
amphibole
Amphibole ( ) is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is ...
occurrences.
Limnology
Numerous brooks flow into the lake, of which the Riegerbach near Döbriach is the biggest. At the western end of the lake the short Seebach stream leads the water into the
Lieser river, which itself is a tributary of the Drava. The
oligotrophic
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates o ...
lake with its deep basin has a large
hypolimnic volume and
meromictic
A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.
The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austria ...
waters, which are clear and reach drinking water quality.
Fishery, especially for
trout
Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...
, had been a source of food and work for residents since ancient times. Today sport fishing and angling is quite common not only for trout but also for several genera of
carp
The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...
s, for
wels catfish,
northern pike
The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...
,
zander
The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also includes perch, Gymnocephalus, ruffe and Darter (fish), darter. It is found in freshwater and brackis ...
,
perch
Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...
and the
European eel.
Transportation

Lake Millstatt can be reached via the Spittal-Millstättersee station of the
Tauern Railway line with passenger train service provided by the
Austrian Federal Railways
The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...
(ÖBB). The B98 Millstätter Straße
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
runs along the northern shore of the lake, connecting it with the
Tauern Autobahn
The Tauern Autobahn (A 10) is an autobahn (motorway) in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the West Autobahn (A1), runs southwards, crosses the Tauern mountain range on the main chain of the Alps and leads to the Süd Autobahn ...
(A10) motorway from
Salzburg
Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
to
Villach
Villach (; ; ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 61,887.
Together wit ...
(part of the
European route E55
European route E55 is an E-route. It starts in southern Sweden, crosses the Øresund strait to Denmark, and passes through more water (the western Baltic Sea) to reach continental Europe on Rostock, Germany. Thence it continues further southwar ...
) at the Spittal/Millstätter See junction.
Since 1901 ship transport on the lake in summer is provided by the Millstättersee Shipping Company, which today runs four vessels.
References
External links
Carinthian Institute of Limnology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millstatter See
Lakes of Carinthia
Mountain lakes
Kettle lakes in Austria