Location The community Grundlsee is located in Ausseerland in the Styrian Salzkammergut in the district of Liezen, Styria. Grundlsee is located at 732 m above sea level directly on the Grundlsee on the southwestern edge of the
Totes Gebirge. The five villages of the municipality are located in an elongated valley on the shores of the Grundlsee, which is framed on three sides by the approximately 1000 meters towering foothills of the Dead Mountains. The valley has an east-west length of about ten kilometers (to the Kammersee ) and a width of about one kilometer in a north-south direction with the only opening to the west to the
Bad Ausseer basin. The most striking mountains that frame this valley are the Hundskogel ( 1748 m ), the Backenstein ( 1772 m ) and the Reichenstein ( 1913 m ) in the north, the Elm ( 2128 m ), the Große Hochkasten ( 2389 m ) and the Weiße Wall ( 2198 m ) in the east, the Turkenkogel ( 1756 m) and the Röthelstein ( 1614 m ) in the south. The highest mountain Grundlsees is the large high box with 2389 m at the border to Upper Austria. The inhabited area has an average height of 750 m. Due to the alpine position and the strong proportion of the Dead Mountains, about 75% of the municipality consist of alpine wastelands, the rest are forests, grassland and other forms of land.
Waters The Grundlsee is 4.22 km ², the largest lake in Styria and is drained by the
Grundlseer Traun, one of the three source rivers of the Traun. It is fed by the Stimitz, the Zimitzbach and the Toplitz, the Entwässerungsbach of lying in the community Toplitzsees. In addition, there are the Dreibrüdersee, the Elmsee, the Henarsee, the Kammersee and the Lahngangseen in the municipality, as well as the source waters of the Traun, the so-called Traun origin.
Geology The Dead Mountains, whose foothills surround Grundlsee on three sides, consist mainly of limestone and dolomite, which originated in the
Mesozoic seas, especially the Triassic and Jurassic, about 210 to 135 million years ago. In the north of the municipal area occurs mainly the Plass limestone of the Jura, in the east mainly the Dachstein limestone of the Triassic and in the south the Triassic with Zlambachmergel, Pedatakalk, Hallstätter layers, Gutensteiner lime and dolomite in appearance. The west Grundlsee towards Bad Aussee features a high glacial ground moraine from the Würm-glacial period. The gypsum and
anhydrite deposit at the settlement of
Wienern (
Gößl ) was built from the Upper Permian to the Scythian and consists of alpine Haselgebirge. The lake basin of the Grundlsee was formed during the Würm icing as the tongue basin of a glacier. The settlement
nuclei of the villages
Bräuhof, Archkogel, Mosern and Untertressen in the west of the municipality are completely on
alluvial plains, slope debris areas and ground moraines which are mostly in the Würm-glacial, sometimes postglacial originated. The settlement center of the village
Gößl lies entirely on a low terrace from the Pleistocene. The Verkarstung formed many sinkholes and caves, such as the approximately 17 km long
Almberg cave system at the foot of the baking stone.
Climate The climate in Grundlsee is determined by its geographical location in the Aussee Basin. It is characterized mainly by the high altitude and the location in the northern congestion area. The result is, in the case of flow conditions from the west to the north, often days of precipitation, which in winter are accompanied by a lot of snow. With 100 to 120 days of snow cover per year, the Ausseer Becken is one of the snowiest areas in Austria. From October to May, snowfall is expected, with December to March, on average, every third day has fresh snow. Fall has a relative sunshine duration over 50%, the sunniest time in the region. The climate in the Ausseer basin is often described as a stimulating climate, especially in winter.
Conservation A large part of the Grundlsee municipal area is under strict environmental protection. The following nature protection levels exist: • Natura 2000 European Conservation Areas (
Dead Mountains with Lake Altaussee - AT2243000), • Nature
Reserves (
Totes Gebirge West - NSG a 16), • Protected caves (including Salzofenhöhle ), • Protected landscape parts (GLT-8), • Protected Landscape Areas (LSG-14a - Salzkammergut Ost) and • Natural monuments (339, 341, 343, 352). The entire municipality is also within the scope of the Alpine Convention.
Municipal organization and neighboring communities The municipality consists of the only cadastral Grundlsee and includes five localities (population as of 1 January 2018). Starting clockwise and north of the lake, these are: • Archkogl (227) • Bräuhof (370) • Gößl (335) • Mosern (196) • Underrides (71) There is no village called "Grundlsee", because the community owes its name to the lake of the same name. The main town of the municipality is the village
Bräuhof. Grundlsee has five neighboring communities, the communities Grünau im Almtal and Hinterstoder are located in the Upper Austrian district of Gmunden, all others in the Styrian Salzkammergut. == History ==