General facts about Austria
with the native name Österreich, which in Czech means “eastern realm”. It comes from the Old German Ostarrichi (attested in a charter of Emperor Otto III from 996), which was the name for the so-called Eastern March (Marchia orientalis), at that time the easternmost territory with a German population.
The Czech name Rakousko (historically Rakúsy, later Rakousy) comes from the border castle Ratgoz (today Raabs at the confluence of the Thaya), whose name Czech merchants garbled into Rakús (or Rakuš). They then named the surrounding territory and later the whole country after it.
Terrain
Approximately 60% of the country is mountainous and is formed by the Alps: the Tiroler Alpen, the Hohe Tauern, the Niedere Tauern, the Nördliche Kalkalpen and the Südliche Kalkalpen. In Upper and Lower Austria, north of the Danube, lies part of the old Bohemian Massif range, which extends further into Czechia and Bavaria. On the eastern border lie the Little Carpathians, reaching into Slovakia.
Large lowlands lie in the east along the Danube, but also in the south in Styria, which because its landscape resembles Italian Tuscany is also called the Styrian Tuscany.
The highest mountain is the Grossglockner (3798m) in the Hohe Tauern.
Lakes
Austria’s largest lake is the Neusiedler See in Burgenland, which reaches into Hungary. It is followed by the Attersee in Upper Austria. The Bodensee is large too, but only a small part belongs to Austria, because it lies on the border with Germany.
Alongside the mountains, the lakes are also very important for tourism, above all the Carinthian lakes and the lakes in the Salzkammergut area. The best known are the Wörthersee, the Millstätter See, the Ossiacher See and the Weissensee. The Mondsee and the Wolfgangsee on the border of Salzburg and Upper Austria are well known too.
Rivers
The largest part of Austria is drained by the Danube into the Black Sea. Only small areas are drained by the Rhine into the North Sea.
Austria’s rivers run through the individual valleys and drain the adjoining mountain ranges. Each valley has its own character, its inhabitants their own culture, customs and cuisine. Cycle paths often run along the rivers.
Such rivers include the Lech, the Inn, the Salzach, the Aschach, the Ybbs, the Fischa, the Mühl, the Mur, the Drau and the Gail.
Climate
The Austrian climate is described as a mixture of oceanic and continental climates, and Pannonian in the east. Because of the peculiarities of these climates, eastern Austria is known for freezing winters and hot summers with low precipitation all year round. The west of the country is generally subject to less extreme conditions, so winters are usually milder and summers rather warm.
There are also areas rich in precipitation. Out of the geographical conditions comes another climatic zone, the alpine climate, which makes winter in the mountains harsher than in the lower-lying east. Another curiosity is the occasional northerly and southerly flow: the northerly brings polar frost, the southerly sometimes even Saharan sand. Because of this, Austria belongs to the Central European transitional climate, with the Alps in the centre and the west and the Pannonian Plain in the east of the country.
Languages
The official language and the mother tongue of the vast majority of the population is German. The Austrian variant of standard German differs from the German of Germany in some words. Two basic dialect groups are spoken in the country – Alemannic and Bavarian.
Religion
The largest church is the Roman Catholic one. Also represented are Protestant and Orthodox churches, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, and a considerable part of the population declares no faith. The shares change and the latest figures are published by Statistik Austria.