Worth doing

The capital of Kärnten is the home town of poet Robert Musil and author Ingeborg Bachmann, of painter Herbert Boeckl and the composer and member of the Royal Opera Thomas Koschat. Gustav Mahler composed here for a few summers.

Klagenfurt lives up to its reputation as a culture city with a special culture mile. It includes the "Künstlerhaus" (House of the Arts) in an art nouveau building, the "Europahaus" event centre, the Alpen-Adria gallery, City Hall, the art nouveau Theatre, the Music Academy and a modern City Gallery.

The birth house of Austrian Romancier Robert Musil ("The Man without Qualities") is now a museum and literary archive of international significance and home of the Literary Institute of Klagenfurt University. The literary estate of Kärnten author Christine Lavant is kept here, as is an exhibition in memory of Ingeborg Bachmann.

The great author lends her name to the literary competition that makes Klagenfurt the annual meeting place of the German-language literature scene: the days of German literature surrounding the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, when every year in June authors, publishers, and critics get together here. Leading up to the "reading competition", the Klagenfurt Literature Course for young authors is held at the Musil house, Klagenfurt’s foremost literary address.

With the events around the Ingeborg Bachmann Literature Prize and the International Gustav Mahler Composition Prize, Klagenfurt has a firm place in European culture. Its Wörthersee stage completes the circle of lakeside Theatre Festival Stages.