The Esplanade and the Toscanapark

The Esplanade is a broad promenade along the western shore, benches on one side and the Traunsee on the other, and it links the two ends of the town: the Rathausplatz at the north and the Ort peninsula in the south. Twenty minutes at walking pace, level the whole way, with the 1,691-metre Traunstein rising out of the far shore behind you.

Halfway along, the Toscanapark opens off the promenade — old trees, lawns down to the water and the villa the Tuscan Habsburgs built here in the nineteenth century. The tree cover keeps the light soft through the middle of the day, which is exactly when the open promenade is at its harshest, so the two work as a pair.

The view is east across the water, so the shore is lit early and falls into shadow in the late afternoon while the Traunstein opposite stays bright — a useful split if you want a lit mountain behind a shaded subject. For the reverse, cross to the eastern side or take a boat.

In summer the promenade carries flower beds, ice-cream stands and the paddle steamer Gisela at the pier. In winter it is nearly empty, the beds are bare, and the mountain often carries snow above a lake that almost never freezes.