The town of Gmunden offers history to touch and exciting sights. It is also the starting point of a comfortable lake cruise with the Traunsee Schifffahrt, incidentally the oldest lake cruise in Austria. The landmark of Gmunden, the lake castle Ort, which is known beyond the borders, is a must-see.
Since 1959, the current town hall has been home to the Glockenspiel, made of Meissen porcelain with the “Grüngeflammten” ceramic decor typical of Gmunden. Several times a day you can listen to the sound of the title melody of the famous TV series “Schlosshotel Orth” and other well-known songs.
The Seeschloss Ort
forms the landmark of the Traunsee town. Rebuilt several times since then, it was also the setting and original backdrop for the successful TV series “Schlosshotel Orth”. The Ort castles and the Ort manor changed hands frequently over the centuries. A wooden bridge about 130 m long leads to the Seeschloss Ort with its Renaissance arcade courtyard worth seeing, which has been owned by the municipality of Gmunden since 1995. On the left side of the courtyard, various high-water marks are marked (formerly called “Göß Höh”), according to which the high water in 1594 reached a height of 2.97 m and thus the top step of the ambulatory. The small chapel of the castle is dedicated to St. James. The castle tower, behind which the much smaller church tower almost disappears, bears the date “1092”. This is an indication of the origin of the lake castle with the associated small castle chapel.
Paddle steamer “GISELA”
The “Gisela” (named after a daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph) is the last of a total of five steamships that have sailed the picturesque Traunsee. She was built at Ruston’s shipyard in Vienna-Floridsdorf. Thanks to an exemplary rescue operation, this unique ship became the first floating object to be placed under a preservation order in 1981 and was able to undergo general renovation between 1980 and 1986. Austria’s “first floating post office” is located on the ship. It is possible to send letters or postcards directly from the ship to anywhere in the world. Our flagship celebrated its 135th birthday in 2006 and has the world’s last oscillating (moving cylinder) compound steam engine (built in 1870/Prager Maschinenbau AG) still in active service.
