The Lavant () is a river 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 ...

, a left tributary of the

Drava The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.

. It lends its name to the ''

Lavanttal The Lavanttal ('Lavant Valley', , Gams, Ivan. 1992. "Labotska dolina." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 6. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 87–87. or ; Southern Bavarian: ''Lovnthol'') lies in the Lavanttal Alps in southern Austria in the eas ...

'' valley as well as to the

Lavanttal Alps The Lavanttal Alps (, ) 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 of Lavanttal and the Lavant River which runs i ...

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

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, at a height of . It then runs southeastwards and after reaches the border with Carinthia. The river flows down the ''Lavanttal'' valley with the towns of Bad Sankt Leonhard, Wolfsberg and Sankt Andrä, until it reaches the Drava shortly before the border to

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which 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, whisker like sensory organ near the mouth (sometimes called whiskers or tendrils). Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the z ...

. The name ''Lavant'' stems from the

Pre-Celtic The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic and Copper Age and is followed by the Iron Age. It starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC and spans ...

period, meaning "shining river" in

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Carinthia Tributaries of the Danube Rivers of Austria