The Lavant ( sl, Labotnica) is a river in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of Carinthia, a left tributary of the Drava. It lends its name to the ''

Lavanttal The Lavant Valley (german: Lavanttal, sl, Labotska dolinaGams, Ivan. 1992. "Labotska dolina." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 6. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 87–87. or ''Laboška dolina''; Southern Bavarian: ''Lovnthol'') lies in the Lav ...

'' valley as well as to the

Lavanttal Alps The Lavanttal Alps (german: Lavanttaler Alpen, sl, Labotniške Alpe) are part of the Central Eastern Alps in Austria and Slovenia, between the river Mur in the north and the Drava in the south. The mountains are named after the central valley o ...

. The river originates in the small Lake Lavant (''Lavantsee'') at the southern slope of the

Zirbitzkogel The Zirbitzkogel, at , is the highest point of the Seetal Alps in Austria. It lies south of the Upper Mur valley in the Styria near its border with Carinthia. The Lavant, a left tributary of the Drau, has its source on the southern slopes of th ...

mountain in Styria, at a height of . It then runs southeastwards and after reaches the border with Carinthia. The river flows down the ''Lavanttal'' with the towns of Bad Sankt Leonhard, Wolfsberg and

Sankt Andrä ) is a town in the district of Wolfsberg in Carinthia in Austria. It is named after Saint Andrew. Landmarks The main church is the former Saint Andrew's Cathedral, until 1829 the bishop's seat of the Diocese of Lavant The Diocese of Lavant(tal) ...

, until it reaches the Drava shortly before it crosses the border to

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

is . The

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

has been affected by large-scale river regulations between the 1930s and 1980s. Most parts of the Lavant belong to the trout zone, while the lowest sections are characterised by

barbels In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whiskerlike sensory organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the zebrafish, the black dragonfish and some s ...

. The name ''Lavant'' stems from the

Pre-Celtic The pre-Celtic period in the prehistory of Central Europe and Western Europe occurred before the expansion of the Celts or their culture in Iron Age Europe and Anatolia (9th to 6th centuries BC), but after the emergence of the Proto-Celtic lang ...

period, meaning "shining river" in

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Carinthia (state) Tributaries of the Danube Rivers of Austria