alte säge & Iselhof — About bold visions, a singing lake and the blissful lightness of being

Alpine Fjord.

North of Her­magor, the highest bathing lake in Car­inthia stretches along the foot­hills of the Gailtal Alps at 930 meters above sea level: Lake Weis­sensee. Long and narrow like a fjord, it nestles against the wildly romantic shoreline land­scape of reed beds, low-hanging willows and marsh­lands. Due to its dif­ferent depths of water, it shimmers in thousandfold oscil­lating nuances of blue, tur­quoise and emerald green and looks like a gigantic Impres­sionist painting. It owes its name to the distinctive white edge of lime­stone deposits that sur­rounds the lake like a halo, making its colors appear even more intense. Lake Weis­sensee is fed by under­ground springs and two streams and has — a real rarity — drinking water quality. Thanks to the unu­sually clean water, you can look up to six meters deep into the blue under­water world. Scuba diving in the Car­in­thian way!

Lake Sym­phony.

6.5 square kilo­metres of usually calm, some­times gurgling, murm­uring, bubbling water. Only a third of the shore zones are popu­lated and around the lake there is an extensive pro­tected land­scape area with a rich variety of flora and fauna. Birds and insects chirp and twitter in the reeds, lake trout, perch, carp and pike explore the deep blue. Now and then a jumping fish ripples the smooth surface of the water, per­forms a pirouette in the air and spins back into the wet habitat. Kay­akers and stand-up paddlers enjoy the silent vastness of the water as the morning mists bathe the lake in a mys­tical atmo­sphere. In summer, bathing guests relax on the shoreline lawns and enjoy the pleasant tem­pe­ra­tures of the lake, which can reach up to 24° C.

And in winter? In winter, a unique sce­nario takes place year after year: Lake Weis­sensee freezes over com­pletely and trans­forms into the largest natural ice surface in Europe. The reeds, the landing stages, buoys, water bubbles and even time remain still and silent in the enchanted ice land­scape. Then the ice skaters make their rounds on the excel­lently pre­pared ice tracks: the pros are quick as an arrow, beg­inners take careful steps, the dogs slip, slide and wag their tails.
Sharp blades glide over the glit­tering ice surface, family fathers become children again and their rosy-cheeked kids hardly ever run out of energy. But all of a sudden they all stop and listen carefully, that is, when the lake begins to sing. Due to varia­tions in tem­pe­rature and the resulting thermal tension, the ice “comes to life” and causes mys­te­rious sounds under the lake surface: it cracks, clicks, murmurs and sighs its peculiar, intri­guing Weis­sensee Sym­phony.

Jung­mann’s Ensemble.

In the village of Neusach, the Mühlbach stream flows gently rushing into the Weis­sensee. Once it sup­plied an adjacent saw mill with energy. In 2010 Angela Frey bought the pro­perty of 2800 square meters and ent­rusted the Lienz-based architect Peter Jungmann with the challenge of designing a unique holiday refugium here, just two minutes’ walk from the lake shore and in the middle of a pre­cious eco­system. Jungmann reno­vated the old sawmill from the scratch and trans­formed the former indus­trial building with great intuition and inge­nious solu­tions into sleek yet sophisti­cated holiday flats.

Initially, four apart­ments were rea­lised in the main house — Bug (bow), Steg (jetty), Heck (stern) — and one in the annex: Flosse (fin). As you enter the apart­ments, you inhale the scent of oiled larch wood and your senses relax at the sight of the clear, no-frills design and the wide view into the land­scape. The smooth wooden ele­ments want to be car­essed, nothing is super­fluous, every cen­ti­metre is cle­verly planned.

Here ever­y­thing focuses on need-ori­ented spatial con­cepts that either har­mo­niously combine con­trasting ele­ments or grant them an equal right to exist: Inside and outside, quiet retreat and com­mu­ni­cative inter­action, open space and intro­verted nest. Sliding doors dis­appear sil­ently into the wall, dis­solving or reve­aling boun­daries and creating spaces which can be fle­xibly trans­formed by the resi­dents: Loft or bunk, quiet studio or lively play­ground, culinary round table or think tank with lake view. Light and space, unusual room heights, lots of wood and huge pan­orama windows create a har­mo­nious con­tinuum of archi­tecture and nature.

Each apartment has its own unique floor plan, mood and cha­racter, but there is a common thread: a deeply relaxed sense of well-being. It per­vades living rooms, saunas, bath­rooms and bed­rooms. The fire crackles in the wood-burning stoves, and cuddly warm sheepskins invite you onto the ter­races even in cold weather: Enjoy being outside, inhale the mountain air, feel a little closer to the lake. In the alte Säge, archi­tecture and faci­lities com­plement each other fabu­lously, because they have one and the same aspi­ration: the blissful lightness of being in every season of the year.

Glazed garden houses.

In 2016, the alte Säge was extended by Anker (anchor) and Boje (buoy), two new buil­dings in the wild-romantic garden, for which architect Peter Jungmann was awarded the Kärntner Lan­des­bau­preis 2017 (reco­gnition). Intro­verted openness is not a paradox here, but rather a mas­terful archi­tec­tural premise. The buil­dings stand out strikingly against the land­scape and yet, with their grassy flat roofs, fit har­mo­niously into the topo­gra­phical context.

The ent­rance areas of both houses are covered with corten steel, their rust-brown sil­houette evokes remi­nis­cence of clods of earth or marine chimneys rising from the ground. From here, 4.5‑meter-high windows allow light to pene­trate into the lower-lying bed­rooms embedded in the ground. Inside, rough exposed con­crete, larch wood, natural stone and glass enter into a great sym­biosis and radiate a warm, almost con­tem­plative atmo­sphere. Towards the lake, wide glass fronts dis­solve the boun­daries between inside and outside and convey the feeling of living in the middle of a blooming or snow-covered garden. Anchor and buoy. Houses that give shelter.

Holy sweatbox.

Giving shelter and wings — another premise. In fact, you can’t avoid stumbling over places and amen­ities at every turn that enrich your holiday, that both ground and inspire you. The garden unfolds its healing and serene effect and reminds us how good it feels to be in nature. In the cosy, open gable areas you are above it all, the bird’s-eye view grants clear insights and new per­spec­tives.
The sauna of each apartment is an archi­tec­tural unicum and becomes a silent temple for body, mind and soul: wrapped in pleasant heat, you inhale the essential aroma of hot steam infu­sions, the noise of thoughts gra­dually fades away and makes room for peaceful rela­xation. Outside, the mill stream murmurs its gentle mantra. These holy sweat­boxes are not the only but a damn good reason to come to Lake Weis­sensee even and espe­cially when there is rain, drizzle, storm and snow. The wilder the weather outside, the more com­forting the heat inside will be.

Bathing hut.

Pro­bably the most beau­tiful sauna on Lake Weis­sensee is hidden in Peter Jung­mann’s multi-award-winning bath­house on the lakeshore. The puristic building with a gable roof trans­lates the formal lan­guage of the local bathing huts into tim­eless reduction to the essential. An archaic house sculpture made of rough larch wood, whose natural wea­thering gra­dually dis­solves the boun­daries between land­scape and archi­tecture. Towards the water, the bath­house has a glass front and you can’t get rid of the feeling that the lake is all yours.

Fisher­man’s friends.

The alte Säge is a small cosmos in its own right and yet closely inter­woven with the local com­munity. At dawn, baker Holzer quietly tiptoes to each apartment door and fills the bread boxes of Anker, Flosse & Co with fra­grant breakfast pastries. If you love fish, you can get it freshly smoked from Martin Müller — including inte­resting insights into sus­tainable sea fishing. And if you do not feel like cooking, you should expe­rience Jakob Lilg’s culinary alchemy at the loe­wenzahn: The young top chef was awarded two “toques” in Raffl’s St. Antoner Hof and opened his own restaurant with lakeview in 2019.
Lots of fine amen­ities and tailor-made sug­ges­tions convey the certain feeling that Angela Frey and her team are tho­roughly but sil­ently con­cerned about their guests. If you need them, they are right there, otherwise they care and work invi­sibly and leave the guests to their self-deter­mined holiday hap­piness. Ever­y­thing’s optional, not­hing’s a must.

Iselhof: Zimmer Frey, Act II.

The most important ingre­dients of Angela Frey’s holiday concept — places that emanate peace, cosiness and a very indi­vidual charm, paired with out­standing, tim­eless archi­tecture — have turned the old sawmill into an oasis of serenity that truly relaxes and inspires its guests.
The success at Lake Weis­sensee has become an encou­raging catalyst for the rea­li­sation of Angela’s latest project and long-che­rished dream: to renovate the old barn of her family’s estate on the edge of the sunny city of Lienz and turn it into a one of a kind holiday hideaway. No sooner dreamt than done.
Stage change: East Tyrol. Lienz. Iselhof. Zimmer Frey, Act II.

Archi­tec­tural Trinity.

The timing was perfect: In 2016 daughter Valerie had just gra­duated in archi­tecture and was ready for the challenge to turn con­ven­tional living habits upside down and to bring a breath of fresh air into the stables’ old walls. Flanked by architect Andreas Heidl, the Freys gave their initial vision form, content and soul. The result is an archi­tec­tural tri­ptych of old building sub­s­tance and new ele­ments that mas­terfully juggles oppo­sites and com­bines them to a har­mo­nious blend: The Iselhof-Stadel (barn) with the two holiday apart­ments Kuchl and Stube, the Villa Notsch planned by Andreas Heidl, a highly modern cube made of exposed con­crete with huge windows, and the old manor house from the 13th century. Three buil­dings whose facades and inte­riors could not be more dif­ferent, and yet it requires every single aspect of this unequal trio to under­stand the Iselhof in its entirety, bring its history back to life, anchor it in the present and give space to its future.

“At the Iselhof, I go one step further and rely on the rich his­to­rical resources of the Iselhof. Tog­ether with my husband I deve­loped the Villa Notsch and the Stadel for lovers of beau­tiful places. Sup­ported by archi­tects and artists, a place for indi­vi­dua­lists is being created here. Embedded in the meadows and the orchard, which has sur­vived for cen­turies, the new lodgings tell dif­ferent stories that want to be dis­co­vered. My guests also go on a journey of dis­covery in the garden, where oases with won­derful views and plenty of space for everyone have been created. A visit to the Iselhof is an immersion in my inter­pre­tation of holiday. Into a world of high and hollow trees, of wide meadows and fields, with an old barn and a clearly struc­tured modern house in the middle”.

City, country, river.

The guests of Iselhof-Stadel can step straight into the spa­cious, idyllic land­scape garden, which borders the glacier river Isel. Here you can day­dream under blooming apple trees, watch the cows grazing or stroll to the neigh­boring castle Bruck. Lienz is within walking distance and sur­prises with an almost Medi­ter­ranean flair, pic­turesque back­streets and charming cafés.
The imme­diate sur­roun­dings of the Iselhof are a real tre­asure trove: here you can swim and bike, climb three thousand meter peaks or enjoy the view in front of tra­di­tional alpine huts. Here you can hike and hide, ski and toboggan, you can learn about local herbs, the history of the town or the secrets of making Schlipf­krapfen. City, country, river and so much more. East Tyrol is sur­pri­singly manifold, a place worth living and expe­ri­encing. Less known than its alpine neigh­bours, it seems to have been hiding under a magic hood so far and that is great luck: This remote and authentic corner of Austria is exactly the right place to escape the fast and furious world for a while, in full rela­xation and serenity.