The Johannesberg chapel above Traunkirchen

Traunkirchen sits on a promontory that almost cuts the Traunsee in two, and the Johannesberg is the small rocky knoll at its tip. A chapel stands on top of it, whitewashed and hardly bigger than a room, with a path and steps climbing from the village in a few minutes. From the water and from the road on the far shore it reads as a clean silhouette against the lake — one of the most recognisable outlines in the Salzkammergut.

From the chapel itself the view runs the length of the lake in both directions: north to Gmunden and the Traunstein, south into the narrow, cliff-walled end of the water. The spur is small and open, so it is exposed and there is not much room; on a windy day it is not comfortable, and the rock is slippery when wet.

Below it, the parish church of the former Benedictine convent holds the Fischerkanzel, a baroque pulpit carved as a fishing boat with nets and apostles — famous enough to be worth seeing, and with its own rules on photography and service times, so check.

The drive from Gmunden takes about ten minutes along the western shore, and the lakeside road itself gives several pull-ins with the chapel in profile. Summer is green and busy; winter often gives mist on the water with the chapel standing above it.