Klagenfurt Old Town

Klagenfurt was handed by the emperor to the Carinthian estates in 1518 after a fire, on condition they rebuild it, and they did - bringing Italian architects who laid out a grid of squares and streets with arcaded courtyard houses, which is why the old town looks more Italian than Austrian and why the courtyards behind the façades are the thing to look for. On the Neuer Platz stands the Lindwurm, a fountain of 1590 carved from a single block of chlorite schist showing a dragon; the skull of a woolly rhinoceros found nearby in the fourteenth century was taken as proof the beast existed and is said to have guided the sculptor. The Landhaus has a heraldic hall with six hundred and sixty-five coats of arms. The Wörthersee is a few kilometres west with a canal linking it.

What you actually see

• The Lindwurm fountain - the 1590 dragon carved from one block of schist.
• Italian-planned squares - the sixteenth-century rebuilding by the estates.
• Arcaded courtyards - behind the street fronts, the real character of the old town.
• The Landhaus heraldic hall - 665 coats of arms painted round the room.

When to go

All year. A day.

Honest expectations

The old town is compact and quickly walked. Courtyards are private in part and not all are open. The lake is not in the city - it is a bus or bike ride west.

Nearby

The Wörthersee and Maria Wörth are west; Maria Saal is north.