Introduction to Villach

48km (30 miles) W of Klagenfurt; 140km (87 miles) SE of Salzburg

Villach, in the center of the Carinthian lake district, is a great place from which to explore the rest of the district. It's also the gateway to the south, and it's easy to make day trips to Slovenia or Italy from here. If you were planning on continuing south anyway, this is also a good stopover point. This town, the second-largest in Carinthia, lies in a broad basin along the Drau River. There was a settlement here in Roman times, and Villach belonged to the bishops of Bamberg (a distant lake near Nürnberg, Germany) from the 11th century until Maria Theresia acquired it for the Hapsburgs. Today it's an industrial town.