Bad Aussee, Styria, Austria

Bad Aussee is a town in the Austrian state of Styria, located at the confluence of the three sources of the Traun River in the Ausseerland region. Bad Aussee serves as the economic and cultural center of the Styrian part of the Salzkammergut lakes region The town began to flourish in the Middle Ages, when salt works started operating in the late thirteenth century. Bad Aussee was designated a market town in 1295. The Romanesque and late Gothic Stadtpfarrkirche St. Paul (parish church) dates from the thirteenth century and contains a Gothic Madonna from 1420. The sacrament house dates from 1523. The Spitalkirche (hospital church) on Meranplatz square was erected before 1395 and contains two Gothic altarpieces with movable wings from the fifteenth century and frescoes.