Carinthia

Carinthia is Austria’s southernmost state, bordering Italy and Slovenia, and it is noted for its mountains and its lakes. Klagenfurt, the capital, lies at the eastern end of the Wörthersee, Carinthia’s largest lake at 19.4 square kilometres, whose surface water can reach 25 degrees Celsius in summer. The regional tourist board counts more than 200 bathing lakes in the state, with water of up to 28 degrees.

Three ranges, three borders

The Hohe Tauern National Park’s first designation, in 1981, was in Carinthia, ahead of Salzburg and Tyrol. Grossglockner (3,798 m), Austria’s highest peak, sits on the state’s border with East Tyrol, with the Carinthian village of Heiligenblut about 12 kilometres to the north-east; Heiligenblut is the Carinthian start of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which crosses the range close by, is priced by vehicle, and is open from the start of May until the start of November. To the south, the limestone Karawanken form the border with Slovenia, rising to Hochstuhl (2,237 m on the Austrian survey office’s map), and further west the Carnic Alps mark the border with Italy, reaching 2,780 m at Hohe Warte, also known by its Italian name, Monte Coglians.

The Nockberge

The Nockberge are the westernmost and highest range of the Gurktal Alps, a group of dome-like, grass-covered summits spread over Carinthia, Salzburg and Styria whose highest peak, the Eisenhut in Styria, reaches 2,441 metres. They were a national park from 1987 until 2012, when the park was converted into the UNESCO biosphere reserve Salzburger Lungau und Kärntner Nockberge, shared with Salzburg’s neighbouring Lungau district; the change extended the protection goals to cultural assets as well as nature.

Season and getting there

Trains run from Klagenfurt Hauptbahnhof to Villach Hauptbahnhof, and the Railjet from Vienna reaches Villach by way of Klagenfurt on a route that continues to Udine and Venice. For Heiligenblut, the Tauernbahn serves the stations of Mallnitz-Obervellach and Lienz; PostBus line 102 runs from Mallnitz-Obervellach to Obervellach and line 100 from there to Heiligenblut, and line 5108 runs from Spittal an der Drau to Heiligenblut. From Heiligenblut, line 119 climbs in summer to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe on the Glockner road.