Lienz

Lienz sits where the Isel joins the Drau under the north face of the Lienz Dolomites, and its situation is a political artefact: when South Tyrol went to Italy in 1919, East Tyrol was left attached to the rest of the province only through Italian territory, so it is an exclave reached from the rest of Austria via Carinthia or the Felbertauern tunnel. The town has a long arcaded main square, a Gothic parish church with frescoes and the tombs of the counts of Görz, and Schloss Bruck above it, their seat, now the town museum with a large holding of Albin Egger-Lienz, the painter born nearby whose hard, monumental peasant and war subjects are among the strongest Austrian painting of the period. Aguntum, a Roman town, is excavated a few kilometres east.

What you actually see

• An exclave town - East Tyrol cut from the rest of the province in 1919.
• Schloss Bruck - the counts' seat, now the museum with the Egger-Lienz collection.
• The Lienz Dolomites - the limestone wall rising directly south of the town.
• Roman Aguntum - the excavated town a few kilometres east.

When to go

June to September for the mountains; winter for skiing. A day.

Honest expectations

Getting here from the rest of Austria is slow - via Carinthia or a tolled tunnel. The museum has seasonal hours. Egger-Lienz's war paintings are bleak and were contentious in his lifetime.

Nearby

Aguntum is east; the Hohe Tauern and Kals are north; Italy is south.