The Pyramidenkogel tower

The Pyramidenkogel rises above the southern shore between Maria Wörth and Keutschach, and since 2013 it has carried the tallest wooden observation tower in the world: about 100 metres of larch beams twisting round a steel core, with open viewing decks near the top and a spiral slide inside for anyone who does not want to walk back down.

What it delivers is the view that no shoreline can. From the decks the entire sixteen kilometres of the Wörthersee lie below in turquoise, with Maria Wörth's headland picked out halfway along, Klagenfurt at the eastern end and the Karawanken forming the Slovenian border to the south. On a clear day the range runs unbroken across the whole southern horizon.

The decks are open all round, so the light is workable in every direction — but the lake sits to the north, which means the water is at its cleanest colour in the middle of the day and the mountains are best in the first and last hours. Haze builds over the basin in high summer; autumn gives the clearest air of the year.

The tower charges admission and its opening hours are seasonal, longer in summer than in winter, and it closes in storms. The decks are open to the weather and often windy. Check the current hours before planning around it, and treat it as one stop in a session rather than the whole of one.