Klagenfurt

A dragon cut in 1593 from one block of stone holds the middle ground of the square. Its head was later shown to copy the skull of an ice age rhinoceros.

Some 150 models of world buildings at one twenty fifth scale are set about a garden. The original materials were used, so a marble building was cut from marble.

At the east end of the lake a bathing house stands on driven timber piles. The building dates from the early 1900s and its changing room doors stay narrow.

665 coats of arms of Carinthian families cover the ceiling and the walls. Standing in the middle, every direction shows the same density of them.

At 100 metres this is the tallest wooden observation tower in the world. A separate way down runs through a slide 120 metres long.

This long square keeps cars out, and archways cut through between the baroque houses. Passing under one leads to a courtyard where a cafe has laid out its tables.

A canal of 4 kilometres joins the centre to the lake with chestnut trees planted along both sides. Small boats work it in summer, and once it freezes in winter people walk on it.

Alpine plants were moved into the floor of a quarry that had gone out of use. The rock walls block the wind, so high mountain species survive at this low altitude.

The outside is plain, yet inside red marble and a gilded altar fill the space. The ceiling painting has come through nearly four centuries without being painted over.

A hilltop church for pilgrims carries Roman gravestones set right into its outer wall. Of its two bells, one was cast in the twelfth century.

A castle on a rocky peak north-east of Klagenfurt, held by the Khevenhuller family since the 16th century. The road spiralling up passes through fourteen gates in turn. If the climb is too much, an inclined lift goes up.

A village on a peninsula jutting from the south shore of Lake Worthersee, crowned by two churches. The large parish church stands beside the small Romanesque Winter Church. The view that fits peninsula and spires together is from the opposite shore.

A resort on the far west shore of Lake Worthersee, its shore lined with a former castle turned hotel and a casino. In summer a lake cruiser carries you across from Klagenfurt. At Christmas a huge Advent wreath floats lit on the water.

On a mountain to the north, a town from pre-Roman and Roman times is excavated as an open-air park. Paths thread between house and temple foundations, past finds of pottery and sculpture. The summit pilgrimage church looks over the Klagenfurt basin.