St Wolfgang

St Wolfgang grew around a pilgrimage: the tenth-century bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg is said to have lived as a hermit here, and the church built on the site became one of the major pilgrimage destinations in the region. Its altarpiece was carved and painted by Michael Pacher of Bruneck between 1471 and 1481 - a winged altar over eleven metres high, with a carved coronation of the Virgin in the shrine and painted wings, and it survives complete on its original site, which is rare and makes it among the most important late Gothic works in Austria. The village around it is small and steep, and it carries a second and quite different fame: the Weisses Rössl inn is the setting of the operetta White Horse Inn, which has brought a particular kind of visitor since 1930.

What you actually see

• The Pacher altarpiece - the eleven-metre winged altar of 1471 to 1481, complete in place.
• A pilgrimage church - built on the hermitage site of Wolfgang of Regensburg.
• The White Horse Inn - the operetta's setting, still an hotel on the lake.
• The Schafberg rack railway - climbing from the village to 1,783 metres.

When to go

May to September; the rack railway is seasonal. A day.

Honest expectations

Coach parties fill the village from mid-morning through the season. The altar's wings are opened fully only on certain days. Parking is outside the centre and the lanes are steep.

Nearby

The Schafberg is above; St Gilgen is across the lake; Bad Ischl is south.