Artists and the nobility in Altaussee in Styria

We are in the Ausseerland in the Styria, where Archduke Johann once pursued his passion for nature. He was an enthusiastic patron of Styria and loved to go hunting in the Ausseer mountains. He commissioned painters such as Jakob Alt, Friedrich Gauermann, Matthäus Loder and Thoms Ender to see the beauty of the Ausseerland in Austria to be recorded in paintings and drawings. He is said to have confessed his love to his future wife, the bourgeois Anna Plochl, who won his heart with her culinary skills, on the Toplitzsee on a trip on one of the typical boats, the Platten. And Anna was well aware of the value of her skills as a cook, as she said: "You Habsburgs might be able to rule it better - but we can cook Plochls better!" and moved actors to Bad Aussee?

At any rate, we like the combination of art and warm hospitality that we experience on a trip to Altaussee, which we discover in the footsteps of artists on a tour along Via Artis. Right in the center in a small park next to the literature museum we discover plaques to famous writers who spent part of their lives here as holidaymakers or because they lived here .: Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote "The Village in the Mountains" and got to know Jakob Wassermann in the editorial office of Simplicissimus. He invited him to Altaussee. With him came young writers such as Arthur Schnitzler, Felix von Salten, Raoul Auernheimer, Richard Beer-Hofmann and others. Later writers such as Robert Neumann, Gina Kaus, Friedrich Torberg and Hermann Broch come to the region.

Even today, artists appreciate the Ausseerland. On our tour we learn that Klaus Maria Brandauer was born here and now lives in a villa above the lake. His first wife comes from a house that still stands in the village square of Altaussee. Austria's Hörbiger dynasty of actors has a close relationship with Bad Aussee. We are very lucky to hear a reading by castle actor Cornelius Obonya during our stay, who embodies “Jedermann” at the Salzburg Festival in 2013. As he tells us afterwards, he came to Bad Aussee as a small boy with his mother. To this day he retires to relax.

On our tour along Via Artis am See, Professor Horst Jandl invites us to visit his house, where Friedrich Torberg and Carl von Binzer lived before him. The Villa Königsgarten is an institution in Altaussee and stands for the writers who moved here and who stayed. "Actually, I'm a shy man," Horst Jandl greets us and begins to tell why he received the house after his predecessors passed away. And he tells and tells. He shows us his garden and his studio with the impressive view of the Loser and the Trisselwand. "I used to climb up there," he says. "Out of heartache." The women at all. He seems to have had problems with them. He either gives flowers to his wife or, if it is more personal, a self-painted picture. To do this, she requires a personal dedication. "Otherwise it doesn't apply."

He shows us his predecessor's studio, in which his daughter is allowed to store pictures. This lives in South Tyrol. "She is a great admirer of Konstantin Wecker," he says, and reports on how she was able to exhibit her works at a Wecker concert. "I bought one of their pictures," he says, pointing to a picture that shows two children upside down. "Because these are my grandchildren." His own pictures capture the landscape and the people in the Ausseerland: he paints the Trisselwand again and again, at all times of the day and in all colors. His round table with ten people can be seen in a painting: “Actually we were twelve. And that one, that's me myself. "

When we want to say goodbye, he interrupts us: “Wait, I still have to show you the picture. I painted it with colors that are highly toxic. The pictures were literally torn out of my hands. My wife said I should only paint such pictures. But then I said that I would be dead in a few years. ”And he smiled slyly.

In general, he finds it difficult to sell his pictures: “If you want to buy a picture of me, you have to give me a good reason. One of my buyers had to wait 25 years for his painting. It happened to come by here and we got talking. He liked my pictures and ordered one that I promised him for the following year. When he came back I hadn't painted anything. So I tell him I just mixed the colors. He should come back in a year and a half. But even then the picture was not finished. This went on for a few years. And then he never came. A few years ago my wife came to my studio and said that there was a man waiting in front of the garden who really wanted to speak to me. When I saw the white-haired man with his thick beard, he looked familiar. After some back and forth it turned out that it was the man who had ordered a picture from me years before. He said he would be sixty the next year and his greatest gift would be if he got the picture I promised. So I painted it for him and sent it a few days before his birthday. He called me on his birthday and thanked him with tears in his voice. "He laughs and says:" And I cried too. "

With these impressions of the people and the impressive mountains of the Loser, the Trisselwand, the tine and the Dachstein in the distance, this stay will be remembered for a long time.

As the other travel bloggers have experienced this trip, you can find out here:

Of beautiful words and tasty wellness: The Hotel Erzherzog Johann in Bad Aussee

Do you already know:

• Tradition in the Erzherzog Johann Hotel in Bad Aussee
• Discover Salzkammergut locations
• Bled at the Bled lake

Source: own research on site at the invitation of the Archduke Johann Hotel in Bad Aussee

A stay in the Archduke Johann Hotel *  you can book at this link. We receive a few pennies for the mediation, with which we finance this blog. The price does not change for you.

Text: © Copyright Monika Fuchs, TravelWorldOnline
Photos: © Copyright Monika and Petar Fuchs, TravelWorldOnline