St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut

For the German municipality of Bavaria, see Sankt Wolfgang.
St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut

Coat of arms
St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut

Location within Austria

Coordinates: 47°44′18″N 13°26′53″E / 47.73833°N 13.44806°E / 47.73833; 13.44806Coordinates: 47°44′18″N 13°26′53″E / 47.73833°N 13.44806°E / 47.73833; 13.44806
Country Austria
State Upper Austria
District Gmunden
Government
 • Mayor Johannes Peinsteiner (ÖVP)
Area
 • Total 56.6 km2 (21.9 sq mi)
Elevation 548 m (1,798 ft)
Population (1 January 2014)[1]
 • Total 2,820
 • Density 50/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 5360
Area code 06138
Vehicle registration GM
Website municipal website

St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut is a market town in central Austria, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, named after Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg.

Geography

The town is located in central Austria. It is on the northern shore of the Wolfgangsee lake (close to the towns of Strobl and St. Gilgen, both in the State of Salzburg) at the foot of the Schafberg mountain.

Culture

It is famous for the White Horse Inn (Hotel Weißes Rössl), the setting of the musical comedy and for its pilgrimage church with a late Gothic altarpiece by Michael Pacher.

A destination spa, St. Wolfgang is also a popular skiing resort during the winter. A rack railway, the Schafbergbahn runs up the mountain.

History

Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut parish church (Upper Austria). Saint Wolfgang´s chapel: Fresco at the ceiling - Saint Wolfgang making the devil build a church.

Saint Wolfgang erected the first church at the shore of the Wolfgangsee after he withdrew to the nearby Mondsee Abbey in 976. According to legend he threw an axe down the mountain to find the site and even persuaded the Devil to contribute to the building by promising him the first living being ever entering the church. However Satan was disappointed as the first creature over the doorstep was a wolf.

After Wolfgang's canonization in 1052, the church became a major pilgrimage site, as it was first mentioned in an 1183 deed by Pope Lucius III. In 1481 it was furnished with the famous Pacher polyptych. There had been several places for lodging around the church since medieval times, while the Weißes Rössl hotel was not built until 1878.

During World War II, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp was located here.[2]

Transportation

St. Wolfgang can be reached via a branch of the B 158 Wolfgangsee Straße federal highway (Bundesstraße), running from the city of Salzburg to Bad Ischl.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Statistik Austria - Bevölkerung zu Jahres- und Quartalsanfang, 2014-01-01.
  2. ↑ "Linde, Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany - Pages: List of subcamps of Dachau - glosk", www.glosk.com, 2010.
 Steinbach am Attersee
St. Gilgen Bad Ischl
   St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut  
Strobl
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.