The Wolfgangsee, with its older name also Abersee, is one of the largest and most famous lakes in the Salzkammergut region with an area of 13 km².
Most of it is located in the northeast of the state of Salzburg, a small part belongs to Upper Austria. The Salzburg municipalities of Sankt Gilgen and Strobl and the Upper Austrian municipality of Sankt Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut are located on Lake Wolfgang. As a connection from St. Wolfgang to St. Gilgen on the north side of the lake there is only a footpath over the elevation of the Falkenstein. The only island in the Wolfgangsee is the tiny butcher island with the ox cross.
The area around the Wolfgangsee is a much-visited tourist region (Wolfgangsee holiday region).
The Wolfgangsee has an area of 13 km². It lies at an altitude of 538 meters and is 114 meters deep at its deepest point.
Surrounding places:
- Abersee: The place is part of St. Gilgen, it is located in the southern center of the Wolfgangsee and is divided by the Zinkenbach. The place is known for the Zinkenbach painters’ colony that used to be located there.
- Fürberg is a part of St. Gilgen on the northeastern bank of the lake. In this area there are bathing places, restaurants, the direct starting point of the footpath over the Falkenstein to Ried as well as a stop of the Wolfgangsee-Schifffahrt.
- Ried is part of the municipality of St. Gilgen, which is separated from the main town by the Falkensteinwand. It can only be reached on the road around the lake via St. Wolfgang. The castle-like main building of the Ferienhort am Wolfgangsee, an association dedicated to child welfare, was built in 1902 and can be seen from afar.
- Gilgen: The community has become known as the vacation spot of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and as the residence of Anna Maria Mozart, the mother of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus. The community has been Salzburg’s “foot in the door” to the Salzkammergut since the Middle Ages. Like Strobl, the place experienced its first heyday as a summer resort in the period after the Second World War.
- St.Wolfgang: The place is named after St. Wolfgang who, according to legend, threw an ax and built a church on the spot where it landed. The community at the foot of the Schafberg became a place of pilgrimage and was the most important place of pilgrimage in Central Europe in the Middle Ages. The church, built in the Gothic style, houses a well-known winged altar carved by Michael Pacher.
- Strobl: The community is home to numerous artists, authors and actors. There are still a number of country villas from the imperial era in the village.
There has long been shipping and ferry traffic on Lake Wolfgang. Today liner shipping is operated in the summer months as well as in the run-up to Christmas. The Wolfgangsee-Schifffahrt was like the Schafbergbahn starting from St. Wolfgang