Lake Ossiach in autumn seen across the water toward the Dobratsch massif

Lakes & Coast

Ossiacher See

Carinthia’s third-largest lake — a warm, quiet mirror beneath the Gerlitzen, anchored by a thousand-year-old abbey that still fills with music every summer.

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COUNTRY: Austria
REGION: Carinthia
BEST TIME TO VISIT: June to September for the lake
DURATION: 2–3 days

ABOUT THE DESTINATION

Lake Ossiach is the gentler sibling of the great Carinthian lakes: ten kilometres of warm, swimmable water squeezed between the sunny Gerlitzen massif and the wooded Ossiacher Tauern, just ten minutes from Villach. Its shoreline strings together five small resorts rather than one big town, a Benedictine abbey founded around 1024 hosts the Carinthian Summer music festival each July and August, and cruise ships, a lakeside cycle loop and the region’s gentlest family hiking make it Carinthia’s most easy-going lake destination.

MAP & LOCATION

Ossiacher See

THROUGH THE LENS

From the road

HISTORY & CULTURE

The Story Behind the Place

The abbey founded by Count Ozi around 1024 — the first Benedictine house in the Duchy of Carinthia, affiliated to the Patriarchate of Aquileia in 1028 — gave the lake its name and owned its southern shore until the monastery’s dissolution in 1783. A fire destroyed the church and monastery in 1484; the baroque rebuilding followed. After centuries as barracks and stud farm, the province of Carinthia acquired the abbey in 1995 and made it a music academy; the Carinthian Summer festival, founded in the abbey church in 1969 with pianist Wilhelm Backhaus, has filled it with music every July and August since. The railway of the 1870s and the early Kanzelbahn of 1928 turned the northern shore’s villages into the family lake resorts they remain.

TOP THINGS TO DO

Experiences Not to Miss

THINGS TO DO

Day Trips: Villach, Landskron & the Three Borders

TOP ATTRACTIONS

Sights & Highlights of Ossiacher See

ATTRACTIONS

Ossiach Abbey

The first Benedictine monastery in the Duchy of Carinthia, founded by Count Ozi around 1024, dominates the narrow southern shore. Its baroque collegiate church — rebuilt after a fire in 1484 — is now both parish church and the main stage of the Carinthian Summer festival, founded here in 1969 with a benefit concert by pianist Wilhelm Backhaus; the organ bears his name. Alban Berg Hall, a modern concert wing added in 2009, completes the music campus.

ATTRACTIONS

Ossiacher See Boat Cruise

Two ships — the MS Ossiach and MS Villach — work a zig-zag route between the lakeside resorts from May to October, and the full round trip takes a satisfying 2.5 hours. The boats dock at the abbey, the Bleistätter Moor, Steindorf and the Gerlitzen cable-car base, so the ship doubles as practical transport: hike one shore, cruise back the other.

ATTRACTIONS

Gerlitzen Cable Car & Summit

The Gerlitzen — “the sunniest mountain in Carinthia” — rises straight from the northern shore, and the Kanzelbahn lifts you from the lake at 550 m to the Kanzelhöhe arena at 1,440 m in ten minutes; new for 2026, Kanzelbahn II continues toward the summit plateau at 1,911 m. Up top: 147 km of marked trails, the alpine water playground at Neugarten, a paragliding take-off considered Austria’s finest flying mountain, and a 360° panorama from the Hohe Tauern to the Julian Alps.

ATTRACTIONS

Bleistätter Moor

The lake’s quiet eastern end is a re-naturalised moor crossed by a straight dam path: a Slow Trail leads 7 km through wet meadows where the Tiebel stream fans into the lake, past a 1931 pump house and reed beds alive with warblers, herons and dragonflies. It is the flattest, quietest walk on the lake — and one of Carinthia’s officially designated “slow” routes.

ATTRACTIONS

Domenig Steinhaus

On the Steindorf shoreline stands one of the strangest houses in Austria: the Steinhaus, architect Günther Domenig’s deconstructivist autobiography in concrete and steel, grown from sketches from 1986 to 2008 and listed as a monument in 2012. Guided tours walk you through fractured rooms, floating stones and a glass cylinder that dives to the groundwater — the “built self” of the architect of the Nuremberg Documentation Centre.

ATTRACTIONS

Strandbad & Lakeshores

The lake warms to 27–28 °C in long summer spells — among the warmest in Austria — and the shallow eastern basin heats fastest. Free public lidos at Bodensdorf and Sattendorf, grassy sunbathing lawns at Steindorf and Annenheim, and water-ski and sailing schools on the northern shore make swimming the default activity; the Bodensdorf Strandbad Toff sits right by the station.

FOOD & DRINK

WHERE TO EAT

Landgasthaus Berghof — traditional Carinthian kitchen in the historic house on the southern shore, open all year

Gasthof zur Post (Ossiach) — classic guesthouse by the abbey with a beer garden, Kasnudeln and trout

Seeterrasse Seehotel Hoffmann — regional dishes on the lakeside terrace in Steindorf’s eastern bay

Buschenschank Rogatsch — farm-gate cold platters and cider at 1,057 m above Steindorf, with the lake at your feet

Stoffelwirt (Bodensdorf) — hearty Carinthian inn minutes from the station and lido

Gasthof Laggner (Steindorf) — regional and Mediterranean cooking with a garden under the Steinhaus ridge

HOTELS & STAYS

WHERE TO STAY

Seecamping Berghof — the lake’s classic family campground on the southern shore, since the 1950s

Hotel SeeRose — 4-star wellness hotel directly on the shore at Bodensdorf

Seehotel Hoffmann — modern 4-star on the eastern bay in Steindorf with lake sauna

Apart Hotel Legendär — upscale lakefront apartments with spa and private beach in Steindorf

TerrassenCamping Ossiach — terraced pitches with lake panorama on the abbey shore

Hotel Ossiacher See — family-run 4-star with panorama indoor pool above Steindorf

ITINERARIES

Keep Driving

1 day

Ossiacher See Round Trip

The full lake circuit by bike or car — abbey, moor, lidos and the Gerlitzen panorama in one relaxed loop.

View itinerary

1 day

Lakes and Borders: Ossiach, Villach & the Karawanks

From the quiet lake over Landskron to Villach and — if the day allows — across the border into Italy or Slovenia.

View itinerary

NATURE & WILDLIFE

The Living Landscape

The lake sits at 501 m between the Gerlitzen (1,911 m) and the Ossiacher Tauern, with two basins divided by a 10-metre sill — the deep western half plunges to 52.6 m while the shallow eastern basin warms to 28 °C. The re-naturalised Bleistätter Moor at the Tiebel inflow protects reed beds, wet meadows, herons, little grebes and 21 fish species including the Reinanke whitefish; the Ossiacher Tauern keep red deer, woodpeckers and a network of quiet gorge trails, while the “peace forest” on the southern slope commemorates the region’s cross-border history.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Practical Information

Getting There

By train: Ossiach-Bodensdorf station sits directly on the S-Bahn line between Villach Hbf (20 minutes, roughly hourly) and Klagenfurt; regional trains stop, Railjets pass through. By bus: line 40 runs Villach–Ossiach in 25 minutes several times daily. By car: 15 minutes from Villach on the B94/B98; free parking at the Kanzelbahn and all lidos. By air: Klagenfurt Airport about 40 km east.

Getting Around

The Ossiacherseeradweg R2 loops the lake flat in 25–28 km; bikes ride the S-Bahn free. The MS Ossiach and MS Villach cruise ships dock at every resort May–October and take bikes when space allows. The free Erlebnis CARD (issued by virtually all accommodation) covers buses, S-Bahn and the boat, plus discounts at the Gerlitzen lifts and Landskron.

WEATHER