Mt Schafberg, Upper Austria

Austria's most famous place of pilgrimage is nestled among rolling, wooded hills. The carved wooden Madonna in the Chapel of Mercy in the centre of th

In places like Illmitz, where the salty steppeland extends into eastern Austria, and the landscape consists of nothing but space, sky, and clouds, man surrounded himself with beauty. He built houses with rounded gables, thatched, and tastefully painted. However, the kind of Baroque farmhouse shown here is now a rarity.

Blossoming oleanders, whitewashed walls, narrow alleys. Washing hangs bunting between the houses. This old style of village life typical of Burgenland is on the retreat in the face of modern developments.

The deep blue sky above the mountains has given way to a pale blue sky above the broad plain, the sun now casts only small shadows, the range of colours is reduced to a minimum, and, in muted pastel tones, Austria says farewell.

A prince’s piety expressed in stone: Prince Paul Esterházy built not only the church, but also the adjacent Cavalry Hill, which is constructed on an artificial mound, and contains 260 wooden figures set in a theatrical landscape of artificial grottoes, terraces, and chapels.

It was from the little green peninsula of Maria Woerth on the southern shore of Lake Woerth that the Christianization of Carinthia was initiated. Gustav Mahler wrote his 5^{th, 6th and 7th symphonies in his villa near Maria Woerth.}

This turquoise-green, fjord-like lake set among the woods and mountains gets its name, white lake, from its light-coloured, milky margins. The water of this highest bathing lake in the Alps is surprisingly warm in summer, and is the home of record-sized trout.

There are many wayside shrines, decorated with flowers and roofed with shingles, scattered along Carinthia’s country roads: they symbolize piety, atonement, thankfulness, or the fulfilment of a vow.

Technology long ago invaded the valley of Moell, which rises on Grossglockner. The great mountain itself is unaffected by the intrusion. Climbers are confronted with sudden storms, violent north-west winds, mist, and snowfalls.

Strange geographical formations were often chosen as sites for castles in an effort to protect the precarious lives of the owners. The steep path leading up to the Khevenhueller castle of Hochosterwitz was cut into the rock. But the enemy came from within when Catholicism defeated Protestantism.

The old windmill in the fields near Retz has long been out of action, but it serves as a pointer to the little town of Retz, which, with ist well-kept 16th century houses, has one of the finest squares in Austria.

“We have built the graveyard up towards Heaven – does it not make thee look forward to dying?”, asks an old chronicle. The graveyard of Pulkau, with its Romanesque-Gothic church and its old charnel house is one of the most beautiful in the country.

It must have given the architects special pleasure to crown the hard, austere granite knoll above the Danube with such an exuberant Baroque complex. The Abbey buildings protectively embrace what is probably the most beautiful Baroque church north of the Alps.

This is how the birds see the ancient monastery on the north-eastern fringe of the Viennese Woods. It was endowed in 1108 by the Babenberger Leopold III and built from 1114. Its greatest treasure is the Verdun Altar, one of the most magnificent enamel and gold artefacts of the High Middle Ages.

The Wachau District, with its old abbeys, ruined castles, and carefully tended terraced vineyards, possesses a special kind of intimacy imposed by the river and its narrow banks. England’s King Richard the Lionheart was incarcerated in Duernstein castle for a year, later being ransomed for a huge sum that severely strained his country’s economy.

‘Encapsulated’ is the first word that comes to mind with regard to Drosendorf. The border to Slovakia cuts it off towards the east. The river Thaya flows round the village on three sides, and medieval walls preserve the intimacy of the characteristic houses and the people who live in them.

The Benedictine nuns were seeking solitude in the 11^{th century when they built their convent on a promontory projecting far into Lake Traun. They could hardly have found anything more beautiful. Centuries later the aristocratic ladies evidently decided that the place was all-too lonely, for they turned Protestant, and got married.}

The smaller, pointed Ostrawitz peak and the not so pointed Spitzmauer peak behind the picturesque village of Hinterstoder frame the catchment area for the beginning of the River Steyr.

The north shore of Mondsee, the warmest lake in the Salzkammergut, is lined with pleasant meadows and wooded hills. But on its south shore the rocky Drachenwand rises steeply for almost 2000 ft.

Famous painters and poets have sat beside this lake – the Vorderer Gosausee – to seek inspiration from the classical Alpine view. The three Gosau lakes were formed by glacier action. The glacier later withdrew, and is now reflected in the tranquil waters of its own creation. The road runs as far as this lake, the other two can only be reached on foot.

The Bischofsmuetze (Bishop’s Hat) peak, in the Dachstein Group, proudly rises above the countryside near Filzmoos. The Salzburg hill farmer survives by making use of even the highest pastures and by exploiting his timber resources. Wood is universally used for building fences and huts and is cut in wooden sawmills.

This church has one of the finest rococo interiors in Austria.

One of the finest views in the eastern Alps is to be had from the Schafberg peak (5848 ft). It takes four hours to walk to the top from St. Wolfgang, but the cogwheel railway manages the distance in 45 minutes.

One of the finest views in the eastern Alps is to be had from the Schafberg peak (5848 ft). It takes four hours to walk to the top from St. Wolfgang, but the cogwheel railway manages the distance in 45 minutes.

One of the finest views in the eastern Alps is to be had from the Schafberg peak (5848 ft). It takes 4 hours to walk up to the top of the montain from St Wolfgang, but the cogwheel railway manages this distance in 45 minutes.

In the Middle Ages only Rome, Einsiedeln and Aachen were more important as places of pilgrimage. To judge from a book dated 1753, most of the recipients of miracles were Bavarians. Today St Wolfgang is an attractive tourist resort.

Snow on the ground and on the needles of the symmetrical fir-trees, lights among the branches: a classical Christmas atmosphere, even though the Chapel only marks the site of the demolished parish church where the famous carol was first sung.

The fortress of Hohensalzburg towering above the Baroque churches of the Old Town of Salzburg.

Splendid farmhouses are characteristic of the pastureland in the foothills of the Wilder Kaiser Mountains, whose limestone peaks (Regalspitze; Ackerlspitze, Maukspitze) are poular among rock climbers.

The craggy peaks of Mandlwand – part of the Hochkoenig Group – rising above the soft Alpine pastures could almost be in the Dolomites. This side of Hochkoenig, seen here from Mitterberg near Muehlbach, is quite different in character to the north side, which boasts the only plateau glacier of the eastern Alps, the Schneefeld.

The Archbishop’s guests sat round the stone table in Hellbrunn Park, eating and drinking. And when the mood was right the Master of the Fountains pressed a button, causing water to squirt out of the stone benches. The guests fled from the table, only to run into a curtain of water – all much to the delight of their exalted host.

The water shimmers greenish-blue,

The cypress trees they stand and sigh,

And breathe unending melancholy

Into the evening sky.

Georg Trakl’s impressions of the Hellbrunn ponds still ring true, even though over a million visitors a year now throng the park.

Hallstadt, on a site wrested from the mountain, is protected by walls from catastrophes such as avalanches and mud slides.

The old palace, or hunting lodge, has dominated the little sylvan Lake Fuschl, just outside the gates of Salzburg, for 500 years. It has had many owners, has been subjected to much rebuilding, and has inspired many film directors. It served as a setting for the famous Sissi films.

Swans swim in the parkland lake, water-lilies bloom white and pink, and the Tudor-style castle casts its shadow across the green water. The last king of Bavaria took refuge here in 1918 – the only occasion on which this romantic building was able to provide history with even a minor footnote.

Saline baths to cure barrenness once made Ischl a fashionable spa. Emperor Franz Joseph was one of those "salt princes" who perhaps owed their existence to the wondrous waters. From 1853 on princes and artists accompanied him to Bad Ischl every summer.

Saline baths to cure barrenness made Ischl once a famous spa.Emperor Franz Joseph was one of those "salt princes" who perhaps owed their existence to the wondrous waters. From 1853 on princes and artists accompanied him to Bad Ischl every Emperor Franz Joseh was one of those "salt princes" who owed their existence to the wondrous waters. From 1853 on princes and artists accompanied him to Bad Ischl every summer.

The south walls of Mt Dachstein – Mitterspitze and Torstein – rise almost vertically into the sky from the ten-mile long sunny and fertile upland plateau called Ramsau.

Six centuries ago the River Enns washed up a statue of the Virgin Mary near here. A small chapel was built to house it, but by the end of the 17^{th century the stream of pilgrims had grown to such proportions that the great church of Maria Opferung was built. It contains some fine examples of Styrian Baroque craftsmanship.}

Austria's most famous place of pilgrimage is nestled among rolling, wooded hills. The carved wooden Madonna in the Chapel of Mercy in the centre of the church, subtly suggests a degree of international understanding: for the Austrians it is Magna Mater Austriae, while the Hungarians call it Magna Hungarorum Domina, and the Bohemians Mater Gentium Slavorum.Austria's most famous place of pilgrimage is nestled among rolling, wooded hills. The carved wooden Madonna in the Chapel of Mercy in the centre of the church, subtly suggests a degree of international understanding: for the Austrians it is Magna Mater Austriae, while the Hungarians call it Magna Hungarorum Domina, and the Bohemians Mater Gentium Slavorum.Austria's most famous place of pilgrimage, Mariazell. The carved wooden Madonna in the Chapel of Mercy in the centre of the church subtly suggests a degree of international understanding: for the Austrians it is Magna Mater Austriae, for the Hungarians it is Magna Hungorum Domina while the Bohemians call it

Winter transforms the lake into a glittering „iceswcape“. Above its southern shore towers the Zahmer Kaiser Range. On the other side of Kaiser Valley, which ends at Kufstein, the Zahmer Kaiser (tame emperor) Range merges into the more rugged and higher Wilder Kaiser with its great limestone walls.

The wide Stubai Valley, through which the wild ruetzbach flows, is one of Tirol’s most splendid mountain valleys. Above the entrance to the valley, near the ancient village of Telfes, rise the mighty, steep flanks of the Kalkkoegel with the Schlickerspitzen peaks.

This little, idyllic moorland lake near Kitzbuehel is backed to the south by ski slopes. To the east, the Kithbueheler Horn rises to nearly 6.500 ft, and to the south-west there is Hahnenkamm, 1.000 ft lower. In summer the softly rounded slate mountains of the Kithbueheler Alps with their grassy peaks and masses of Alpine roses, constitute ideal walking country, while in winter their gentle slopes and deep, reliable snow make them superb skiing terrain.

The first snow of the year has only dusted the woods around the resort of Igls, but the 7.370 ft summit of Patscherkofel is already in the depths of winter. Soon the Innsbruck skiers will be taking the cable.car up to the top of ‘their’ mountain to try their skill on the Olympic downhill pistes.

Miners settled in the remote Obernberg Valley beneath Mt Tribulaun 2.000 years ago. Then there was little activity for a long time until peasants erected a Gothic chapel in 1385 in this picturesque setting above their summer dairy farms. It was rebuilt in its present form in 1761.

The Oetztal and ist two branches, Gurgler and Venter Tal, are three of the most famous skiing valleys in the Alps, and the village of Obergurgl is the commercial expression of this fame. The 385 inhabitants accommodate no less than 400.000 guests per year who, from the top of ‘Glacier Lift’ can enjoy a view of 21 glaciers.

The steeple of Moesern Church seems to point straight to heaven. Moesern is a mountain resort set in wooded countryside with plenty of fine walks to such romantic lakes as Moeserer See and the enigmatic, periodically disappearing and reappearing Wildmosersee.

The great Karwendel Group forms four almost parallel ranges running between the Isar and Inn Valleys. From Hintreriss, close to the German border, a toll road leads up to the Ahornboden, famous for its sycamore trees, in the midst of a heroic landscape of mighty limestone walls.

The Pasterze Glacier, one of the longest in the eastern Alps, flows southwards between Grossglockner and the Fuscherkarkopf mountains. Johannisberg, seen here in the centre of the picture, is often mistaken for Grossglockner, which rises to a sharp pyramid on the left of the picture.

The main feature of the Montafon Valley is its two dozen lakes, all at an altitude of over 6.500 ft. The large lakes – Silvrettasee, Vermuntsee and Kopsee – are used for power generation. The little, mysterious Schwarzer See, on the other hand, has been left untouched, a joy to every walker in the mountains.

Only the Parish Church of St. Nikolaus, with its sturdy 14^{th century tower, makes any attempt to compete with the mighty Mt Omeshorn. The ancient village has long since lost its innocence, and all the most modern conveniences are to be found under the broad roofs of this hotel village.}

The typical Walser houses, with their characteristic wooden shingles are clearly related in style to those in Vallais, Switzerland, from where the Walser (Valaisans) originally emigrated before settling in this region. Solid and modest-looking on the outside, they are the essence of Gemuetlichkeit inside.

Flowering meadow beneath Lobspitze peak

An artificial outflow has been constructed for the Rhein near Fussach. A walking tour along the mole provides a distant view of Bregenz and leads into the waterfowl paradise of the Rhine delta.

After the death of Prince Eugene, ‚horrid Victoria’, as the Viennese called his heiress, sold the two Belvedere Palaces without a scruple. Now they are museums. “Baroque Vienna”, said Alan Whicker, a British broadcast journalist, “knows that an illusion which makes you happy is better than a reality which makes you sad.”

Parliament House was built in the Greek Revival style with a gold-helmeted Pallas Athene before it: a gesture towards the country where democracy originated.

The Pestsaeule in the broad street known as the Graben is a memorial to 50.000 people who died of the plague – but the Viennese prefer to remember the jolly bagpipe player called Augustin, who, after looking too deeply into his wine glass, fell into a mass grave full of plague victims, but then cheerfully climbed out again.