Ferlach can be explored through a range of themes: gunsmithing at the castle, a route through the Tscheppaschlucht gorge, landscapes in Bodental, and opportunities to observe nature or go swimming. When planning your stay, it helps to consider whether you would rather focus on cultural history, a specific route or individual landscapes. These different focal points can help guide your choice of excursions.

Museum at the castle: crafts and hunting

The Gunsmithing and Hunting Museum is housed in Ferlach Castle, a building constructed in the 16th century. It presents the craft of gunsmithing and the myth of hunting. Its exhibits include historical weapons and many trophies of native and exotic animals from the Horten and Dr. Hellmuth Reichel collections.

The craft itself is also shaped by collaboration: stock makers, engravers and gunsmiths work together. The museum therefore brings together two aspects that offer different points of interest to visitors interested in culture: the trades involved and the portrayal of hunting, along with historical pieces from the collections. The castle as the museum’s setting adds a 16th-century building to these themes.

Tscheppaschlucht and Tschaukofall

The route through the Tscheppaschlucht gorge is 4.4 kilometres long. The Tschaukofall, which plunges 26 metres, is considered the highlight of the gorge. These two figures describe different things: the distance refers to the route, while the height refers to the waterfall. This gives you both a specific route length and a distinctive natural feature to keep in mind when planning your excursions.

The visit therefore combines a walk through the gorge with a highlight along the way, although the two figures do not describe the same thing. This distinction is useful when choosing an outing if a stated route length matters to you or you would like to focus on the Tschaukofall as a notable landscape feature. The Tscheppaschlucht thus offers a different focus from the historical collections in the castle.

Landscapes in Bodental

Two different landscape features take centre stage in Bodental. The Märchenwiese is a romantic alpine meadow in the forest of Bodental, ending at the vertical rock faces of the Karawanks. The Meerauge is also in Bodental. It is a kettle hole formed by a glacier during the Ice Age, lies at an elevation of 1,052 metres and has turquoise-blue water caused by algae.

The Märchenwiese is a meadow landscape framed by forest and rock faces, while the Meerauge is notable for its geological origins and water. If you choose landscapes based on their different features, this contrast provides a clear guide: here, the alpine meadow and the Karawanks’ rock faces define the setting; there, an Ice Age kettle hole. Together, the two places offer different perspectives on Bodental.

Observing fish or swimming

At Äschenrast on the Waidischbach stream, there are small pools where you can observe fish, as well as information panels. The combination of opportunities to observe and learn appeals to a different interest than a waterfall or geological formation. If you are interested in nature, you can focus here on the fish and the information on the panels.

The Reßnig recreation area invites visitors to swim and fish. Swimming conditions may vary by season. If swimming is an essential part of your stay, take the season into account when planning. Together with the pools at Äschenrast, Reßnig shows that Ferlach also offers different ways to engage with water and fish: one through observation, the other through the stated leisure activities.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Unterbergen, Sankt Bartlmä, Radsberg, Lukowitz, Köttmannsdorf, Pörtschach Am Wörther See, Maria Rain, Ottmanach

Back to the regional travel overview: Klagenfurt-Land.