Gustav Klimt spent many summers on Lake Attersee with his “soul mate” Emilie Flöge.
Now the territory is the first “Dark Sky Park” in Austria and seeing the stars here is exciting.
The discovery of the Attersee as a summer holiday destination began in the mid-19th century, first as a destination for excursions from Bad Ischl, a holiday resort of the imperial family and nobility.
The Attersee, on the other hand, was a favorite destination for the urban bourgeoisie, artists and intellectuals from the beginning.
In the summer of the year 1900 Gustav Klimt arrives in the Salzkammergut for the first time at the invitation of the Paulick family, related to the Klimt and Flöge families.
From there until 1916 every summer he went to Lake
Attersee
.
In the summer of 1900 Gustav Klimt reached this holiday destination, where he sought and found places to regenerate and create works.
47 of Klimt's 58 landscape paintings are inspired by the landscapes around the Attersee.
On the Attersee Klimt found orchards, gardens and farmers' allotments, trees, forests and water with shades of blue and turquoise, places and colors that would become subjects for his paintings.
Klimt, very often in the company of Emilie Flöge, took boat trips on the lake, and entertained himself in the garden of Villa Paulick.
Generally, Emilie Flöge anticipated the start of her holiday in June, while Klimt had to stop in Vienna for work and began his holiday towards mid-July or early August.
There are several letters and postcards to Emilie in which she talks about the heat in the city and her desire to join her on the lake.
The first postcard is dated August 1, 1901.
After choosing the "Brauhof" in the town of Litzlberg as their home for eight summers, in 1908 Klimt and the Flöge family moved to the eastern shore of the lake and took up residence at Villa Oleander.
Starting point for many trips to the countryside in the company of friends, as shown by the many photographs.
One of the favorite excursion destinations was Mount Gahberg (864 m).
https://www.klimt-am-attersee.at/en/
In 2021 the
Attersee-Traunsee
Nature Park
becomes the
first Dark Sky Park
in Austria.
Appreciated by holidaymakers since the early 19th century, painted by Gustav Klimt in the early 1900s, the cultural and natural landscapes of the Attersee and Traunsee lakes area, with fruit trees in bloom in spring, flowering meadows in early summer and colorful forests in autumn, have been shaped by man over the centuries
In 2012, the landscape conservation area between Attersee and Traunsee was designated as a nature park in order to conserve and further develop this cultural landscape so typical of the mountain regions of Upper Austria.
Through various projects and activities, the cultural and natural treasures of the park are thus highlighted and local communities supported.
And not only:
After a scientific analysis of the quality of the night sky and existing lighting situations, the area between these two Upper Austrian lakes was considered ideal for certification as a nocturnal landscape protection zone.
The main criterion, an exceptional darkness of the night sky, which is characterized by the fact that, for example, the Milky Way can be easily seen with the naked eye, was easily met.
Criteria for external lighting, such as complete shielding of light sources to avoid stray light, as well as switching off or dimming at night, were extensively adapted as part of the project.
Another feature of the project is the legal anchoring of these criteria on the basis of resolutions of the communicative councils, which contain precise statements on the use of artificial light at night and specify threshold values, which significantly exceed current national guidelines.
In order to maintain the darkness of the night and the fascination of the starry night sky and its natural landscape, there is a global possibility of establishing night landscape protection zones.
The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) offers several certification categories for this purpose, including the "Dark Sky Park" category.
Award these titles to areas that take certain measures to protect the night sky, use outdoor lighting in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, and raise awareness of the issue of light pollution, with particular consideration for wildlife.
There are currently 150 such certified protected areas worldwide, of which the Attersee Traunsee Nature Park area is now part: a collaboration between the University of Vienna, the provincial government of Upper Austria, the Attersee Nature Park -Traunsee and other local project partners, the "Sternenpark Attersee-Traunsee" has now officially received its certification as an International Dark Sky Park after three years of work.
This is an area of over one hundred square kilometers, spanning the local communities of Weyregg, Schörfling, Aurach, Altmünster and Steinbach, with the latter including the entire community area in the star park.
https://www.sternenpark-attersee-traunsee.at/
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