Seewinkel

The Seewinkel lies in Burgenland east of the Neusiedler See, a flat landscape once shaped like an L around Podersdorf, Apetlon and Illmitz. The name once covered only those three villages, but today it stretches north-east to Andau and south-east to Pamhagen. Most of the land is given over to vineyards or large estates and communal farms. The region’s gentle slopes rarely rise above 117 metres above sea level. The Seewinkel holds about forty salt lakes called Lacken, the largest being the Lange Lacke at three kilometres long. Some dry out in summer, leaving white salt crusts that support rare salt-loving plants. The Zicksee, another of the bigger lakes, is used for bathing and has a spa house at Sankt Andrä. The pannonian climate brings little rain, fewer than 600 millimetres a year, but more than two thousand hours of sunshine. Strong winds sweep across the steppe-like plain, creating an environment more typical of the Eurasian interior than of Austria. Visitors walk or cycle along quiet tracks between the lakes and vineyards. The Nationalpark Neusiedler See-Seewinkel protects the wetlands and their birdlife, including species that nest on the shallow shores. The Einser-Kanal and drainage ditches criss-cross the land, but small weirs now slow the flow to keep the lakes wetter. The whole area, shared with Hungary, was declared a UNESCO cultural landscape in 2001.