Klagenfurt am Wörthersee

The Neuer Platz is Klagenfurt's central square, with the Lindwurm fountain — the dragon figure carved from a single piece of chlorite slate in 1593 — as the city's emblem. The Italianate scale of the centre reflects Klagenfurt's planned reconstruction after the 1514 fire by the Carinthian estates, who hired Italian architects; arcaded courtyards inside the burgher houses on the Alter Platz are the result. The Pestsäule plague column, the Lily column, the Maria-Theresien-Monument and the baroque Stadtpfarrkirche St. Egid round out a compact walking circuit.

The 16th-century Landhaus, the historical seat of the Carinthian estates, is the city's most important Renaissance building. The Großer Wappensaal inside is covered with the 665 painted coats of arms of the Carinthian estates and one of the country's most striking heraldic interiors; the small Landesmuseum branch on the courtyard tells the constitutional story behind it.

The Wörthersee lies directly west of the centre. The Strandbad Klagenfurt is one of the largest lido beaches in Austria; passenger steamers of the Wörthersee-Schifffahrt cross to Maria Wörth, Pörtschach and Velden; and the Lendkanal connects the lake to the city centre through a leafy nineteenth-century canal walk. The Europapark beside the Strandbad holds the Minimundus park with its scaled-down replicas of architectural landmarks from around the world.

On the southern shore of the lake the Pyramidenkogel — a 100-metre wooden spiral observation tower built in 2013 — is one of the highest viewing towers in the world built from wood and looks down over the full length of the Wörthersee. The Maria Wörth pilgrimage church on its small peninsula in the middle of the lake is the most photographed building on the Wörthersee.

Just north of the city, the Magdalensberg archaeological park preserves one of the largest Roman settlements in the eastern Alps with excavated streets, a forum and reconstructed buildings on a steep hilltop. Nearby Maria Saal — one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in Carinthia — and the Zollfeld plain together hold the foundations of the Slavic principality of Carantania that gave the modern state its name.

Carinthian cooking leans south. Kärntner Kasnudeln (cheese-curd-and-mint-filled pasta pockets), Reindling (cardamom-and-cinnamon yeast cake), Frigga (a cornmeal-and-cheese skillet dish) and a strong tradition of freshwater fish from the alpine lakes shape the menus. Klagenfurt also hosts the annual Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, where the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis — the most prestigious German-language literary prize for unpublished prose — is awarded each June.