Holiday in Hintersee

About Hintersee

Hintersee near Ramsau is Bavaria's most painted lake and one of the most romantic places in the German Alps — no wonder that painters of the Romantic era like Carl Rottmann and Ludwig Richter pilgrimaged here to capture the lake with its moss-covered boulders, the mirror-like water, and the dramatic mountain backdrop on canvas. The "Malerwinkel" on the northern shore marks the location where the most famous paintings were created. The Zauberwald — a mystical forest of giant, moss-covered boulders — stretches between Hintersee and Ramsau and is the result of a massive rockfall over 3,500 years ago. The circular path through the Zauberwald (about 1 hour) leads through house-sized, moss-covered granite blocks and feels like a scene from a Tolkien novel. Hintersee itself is only 16 hectares in size and a maximum of 18 meters deep, but its beauty is disproportionately large: The turquoise-green water reflects the surrounding mountains — the Hochkalter (2,607 m) and the Reiteralpe — and in autumn, the beech trees along the shore glow in gold and red, creating one of the most spectacular color displays in the Bavarian Alps. Nearby Ramsau — officially "Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden" — is certified as a "mountain climbing village" and epitomizes a Bavarian alpine village: The baroque church of St. Sebastian against the backdrop of the Reiteralpe is one of the most photographed motifs in all of Bavaria and adorns countless postcards and calendars.