Afritz am See () is a municipality in

Villach-Land District Bezirk Villach-Land () is a Districts of Austria, district of the States of Austria, state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics ...

in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n state of

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

Name

The name ''Afritz'' is ultimately derived from the Slovene prepositional phrase ''za brdce'' 'behind the small hill'. The Slovene phrase fused to yield *''Zabrdce'', which was borrowed into

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

as *''Zafriz'' (from which, in turn, ''Cobrc'' was borrowed back into Slovene). The initial ''z-'' was misunderstood as the Middle High German preposition ''ze'' 'at', yielding the modern German decomposition ''Afritz''.

Geography

It is located within the Gegend Valley surrounded by the

Nock Mountains The Nock Mountains ( or ''Nockgebirge'') are the westernmost and highest mountain range of the Gurktal Alps in Austria, spread over parts of the federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg and Styria. Their appearance is characterised by numerous dome ...

, the western part of the

Gurktal Alps The Gurktal Alps (, ) is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps in Austria which is named after the valley of the Gurk river. The range stretches west to Lake Millstatt and east to Neumarkter Sattel (north-northwest of Neumarkt in Steie ...

mountain range, on the southern shore of small

Afritzer See Afritzer See is a lake of Carinthia, Austria. Geography The lake is situated in the Gegendtal Valley, running from east to west through the Nock Mountains range of the Gurktal Alps. Though the named after the settlement of Afritz on the eastern ...

(Lake Afritz). The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Afritz and Berg ob Afritz.

History

The remote valley was not settled until the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

. ''Afritz'' itself was first mentioned in a 1408 deed, then an estate held by the

Counts of Ortenburg The Counts of Ortenburg () were a comital family in the mediaeval Duchy of Carinthia. Though they had roots in Bavarian nobility, an affiliation with the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, ...

. In 1973 the municipality merged with neighbouring

Feld am See Feld am See is a municipality in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography It is located in the Gegend valley of the Nock Mountains range at the shore of the Brennsee (or ''Feldsee''), between the Mirnock massif in ...

, but since 1991 has again been a municipality in its own right. The appendix ''am See'' was added in 2000, mainly for

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

reasons, though officially Lake Afritz belongs to the municipal area of Feld am See.

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2009 elections: *

Freedom Party in Carinthia The Freedom Party in Carinthia (, FPK, alternative English translations: Carinthian Freedom Party, Freedom Party of Carinthia, The Freedomites in Carinthia, or Carinthia Freedom Party) was a political party in Austria, operating in the federal s ...

(

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five par ...

): 9 *

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

(SPÖ): 4 *

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(ÖVP): 2

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Villach-Land District