Klagenfurt, capital of Carinthia, lies on the edge of the wide Klagenfurt basin, which is bounded on the south by the wooded ridge of the Sassnitz range, with the Karawanken rearing up behind. Although Klagenfurt is an imperative traffic junction and a busy industrial and commercial town, it has an attractive old quarter with picturesque little lanes and historic old buildings. It is also now a university town. Founded about 1161 as a market village, Klagenfurt was granted its municipal charter in 1252. The old town was destroyed by fire in 1514, at which point the provincial Estates of Carinthia petitioned the Emperor Maximilian I to grant them possession of the now impoverished little town. It was duly transferred to them in 1518, and Klagenfurt then displaced St Veit an der Glan as capital of the region and began to expand. Between 1527 and 1558 a canal was constructed to supply water for the moat nearby the town, and this still links Klagenfurt with the Wörther See. The line of the old fortifications is marked by a circuit of streets, the Ring, around the old part of the town, which today has many parks and gardens. Klagenfurt is the birthplace of Robert Musil (1880-1942), who became world-famous for his novel "The Man without Qualities", and of Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-73), well known for her lyric writings. A literary competition is held every year in Klagenfurt.

 

Tourist Attractions in Klagenfurt

 

Immediately east of the Provincial Government structure in Klagenfurt's Arnulfplatz is the Provincial Museum (Landesmuseum), built in 1879-84, with rich collections of material on the natural history, art and life of Carinthia, and also on the history of the town (including a model of Klagenfurt as it was about 1800). Particularly notable among the medieval items are the "Fürstenstein" (Prince's Stone) from Karnburg, on which until 1414 the duke elected by the peasantry was enthroned, and the traditional sword of the Knights of St George from Millstatt (1499). Items of interest in the natural history section include the Ice Age rhinoceros skull which provided the model for the Dragon Fountain and relief models of the Grossglockner mountains, the Villach Alps and the eastern Karawanken. In the museum park can be seen Roman gravestones and votive stones from Virunum in the Zollfeld and other sites. The Concert Hall (Konzerthaus) to the east of the museum also houses the Little Theater (Kammerspiele).

 

West of Klagenfurt, on the Wörther See, in the outlying region of Klagenfurt-See, are the municipal swimming pool and boat landing stages. The Europapark is worth a visit for its mini golf course, modern sculptures and Minimundus, a miniature town with models of well-known Austrian and international buildings reduced to 1/25th of their size, as well as railroad and port installations on the same scale. Also of interest are the planetarium and the reptile zoo.

 

Klagenfurt - Neuer Platz and Dragon Fountain; Lindwurmbrunnen

The central feature of the newer part of Klagenfurt is the spacious Neuer Platz, with the massive Dragon Fountain (Lindwurmbrunnen), the heraldic emblem of Klagenfurt. This huge piece of sculpture was carved by Ulrich Vogelsang about 1590 from a single block of chloritic schist. Legend has it that the town was built on a swamp inhabited by a dragon, which was later slain. The model for the dragon's head was the skull of a woolly rhinoceros found near the town (now in the Provincial Museum). The figure of Hercules and the iron railings were added in 1636. On Neuer Platz, too, stands the Trinity Column ("Dreifaltigkeitssäule", 1689; the square used to be known as the "Dreifaltigkeitsplatz", or Trinity Square).