Book a Photoshoot
in Gmunden

Gmunden holds the north end of the Traunsee, the deepest lake in Austria, and the Traunstein rises 1,691 metres straight out of the far shore behind it — the reason every frame here has a mountain in it. The picture the town is known for is the Seeschloss Ort, a white castle on a small island reached by a long wooden footbridge; the bridge itself, seen head-on with the onion-domed tower at the end, is the shot, and it works in flat overcast light as well as in sun. The castle courtyard is open to walk through and the estate sets its own rules for anything that looks like a production, so check before the day. In the town, the Rathausplatz sits right on the water: a painted square, arcades, and a town hall whose carillon is made of Gmunden ceramic — the local craft, still produced in the green-striped pattern you will see in every shop window. From the square the Esplanade runs south along the shore past the Toscanapark to the Ort peninsula, twenty minutes of lakeside walking with the Traunstein in the background the whole way. The Grünberg cable car climbs the eastern side for the view down over the whole lake. Five kilometres south, Traunkirchen sits on a promontory: the parish church with its famous fisherman's pulpit, and above it the Johannesberg chapel on a rock spur, one of the most photographed silhouettes on the lake. Summer means paddle steamers, warm evenings and the boat season; winter often puts the Traunstein in snow above an unfrozen lake and empties the promenade completely.