Community surrounding The Sound of Music's lake in lease dispute

Times

30-07-2025

'How do you solve a problem like my rent?' was not the question posed by the chorus of jubilant nuns as the veiled Julie Andrews processed up the aisle in the wedding scene of The Sound of Music.
But were the scene, filmed in St Michael's Basilica on the banks of the Austrian lake of Mondsee or 'Moon Lake', shot today, the congregation may have more on their mind than the Von Trapp nuptials.
The community surrounding the scenic lake made famous by the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is at the centre of a growing dispute after its private owner cancelled lease agreements tied to the shoreline.
The Mondsee sits on the edge of the Salzkammergut, a mountainous region heavily promoted for tourism. The area owes its fame partly to the musical inspired by the true story of a celebrated Austrian submarine commander, Georg Von Trapp, who married his daughter's governess, Maria Augusta Kutschera, before emigrating to the US with his children after refusing to fight for Nazi Germany.
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The Mondsee, however, is notable as the only of the large Salzkammergut lakes that is privately owned. As of last summer, it belongs to Anna Mathyl, 48, who inherited it from her mother.
One year after taking over the ownership, she has moved to terminate contracts involving moorings, piers and boathouses via letter, local media reported, surprising leaseholders and officials.
The lake had long been in possession of Mathyl's ancestors, the Almeida family, originally an aristocratic dynasty in Portugal.
The Mondsee had first belonged to the medieval monastery by its shore, which is attached to St Michael's. But when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Europe, he gifted the monastery and all its possessions — including Lake Mondsee — to the Bavarian field marshal Karl Philipp von Wrede in 1809, who fought alongside Napoleon in the Coalition Wars.
Wrede's descendants were the counts of Almeida, the family into which Mathyl's mother, Nicolette Waechter, née Almeida, was born. She received the lake from her brother in 1977.
Mathyl has said she plans to manage the lake and the surrounding nature sustainably. In the letters to tenants, she invoked a special legal right to end the existing leases, warning that 'private or commercial uses of the Mondsee for which no express legal or written authorisation has been provided by me are prohibited.'
While a legal settlement in the 1990s guaranteed public access to the lake for swimming, sailing and surfing, the affiliated infrastructure for these pursuits is not covered by this.
The Austrian state had once considered buying the lake. But Mathyl's mother, Nicolette Waechter, who sought €16 million for the property, did not sell after the government offered only around €2.5 million, Austrian media reported at the time.
Now roughly 150 moorings and several sheds and boathouses are affected by the lease terminations, according to Mondsee's mayor, Josef Wendtner.
Wendtner warned that if agreements cannot be reached, piers and boathouses may have to be dismantled and removed.
The correspondence left local officials and leaseholders, including businesses, concerned, as many of them had enjoyed below-market fees for decades.
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At nearby Lake Wolfgang, the public ownership charges €486 annually per mooring. At Mondsee, fees have been estimated at around a quarter of that figure, according to the Austrian tabloid Heute.
Businesses by the lake include boat rental companies, sailing academies and surfing schools, some of whom have been contacted by customers, who were wondering whether they would still uphold their commitments.
Two leaseholders contacted by The Times, however, were unconcerned by the end of the leases.
Even if Mathyl's communication had surprised them, they suspected that 'the countess' simply wanted to renegotiate the agreements, which date back to her mother's ownership, leaving many of them considerably out of date.
Mathyl has offered to renegotiate terms. Price increases for piers and boat sheds are anticipated, however. The owner has not issued further comment to Austrian media, saying only that she is currently on holiday. Mathyl was approached for comment.