Villach is the second largest city in Carinthia (and the seventh largest in all of Austria). The city was founded in the 13th century, but the oldest buildings we see today in its center were built in the 17th century. Old colorful houses, stone paved roads, no cars and no traffic lights. As we stroll for pleasure around the city, it's easy to forget that we live in the 21st century. Tourists from Israel who arrive in Carinthia visit Villach, as well as Israelis who come to Croatia and Slovenia are "jumping" for half a day in Villach. There are many sites in Villach that can be interesting for Jewish travelers
The Drau River crosses Villach. Villach's location is very strategic, with railways junction from Vienna to Trieste port. Therefore, during world war II more than 12,000 British bombs were dropped on it. Most of the city's houses were destroyed and the city rebuilt in the 1950s. Although the bridges were not damaged because British planes missed them time after time
The clown statue
The get to the tourist area we have to pass through the "Town Bridge". On its side we see the Carnival's fool statue, which children and tourists love to take pictures of or sit on his lap. On the banks of the river behind the statue is the Villach Convention Center
Hauptplatz
The main Street is a beautiful pedestrian street with lots of restaurants and cafes and shops. The buildings there are reconstructions of the houses built in the 17th century. In the center of the street we see a pillar with a statue of the Holy Trinity. The statue is made of white marble and is considered the "protector of the city
On the town hall plaza we see a green house adjacent to her town hall. It was the home of Villach's most important Jewish lawyer, Eugen Weisberg. In the yellow building across the street was living a Jewish lawyer, Dr. Marcel Glinzinger. A day after the Anschluss, when the Nazis took over Austria, they fled to Israel
Up the main street is St. Jacob's Church, built in Gothic style. The original church was built in 1136, destroyed in an earthquake in 1348, and rebuilt. The local cardinal proudly states that he is the grandson of a Jew. Above the church there is a 94-meter-high tower (about 25 stories) with a spectacular view of the city at its peak. The tower is called Campanile
At the foot of the preaching stand inside the church there is a statue of a man lying and sleeping, and out of his heart grows a tree, on whose branches are written the names of the sons of King David, such as Yehoram, Asa, and other kings of ancient Judah kingdom written in the Bible
The Holocaust memorial
We pass the church to the right (west), and on the first street turn right to Wilmanngasse street. The tourists come here to visit the municipal museum, but the place that interests us most is the monument to the victims of the Holocaust, which is just across the street of the museum. Next to the second fence on the right. The memorial displays transparent glass panels bearing the names of 336 Villach residents who were murdered by the Germans. 50 of them were Jews
The man who initiated this monument is Mr. Hans Haider, a retired teacher. He says that Villach had no mention of the Holocaust and the Jews. In 1989, the local Villach Communist Party wanted to establish a memorial for 15 local communist people killed by Nazis. He was asked to make a research about those Communists who were murdered during World War II, and discovered that the Germans actually murdered many more Villach's inhabitants. In nearby Klagenfurt there was a psychiatric hospital, and the Germans transferred all its residents to the Mauthausen extermination camp, where they were murdered in the first two days of their arrival. Then they collected the fools and disabled people who lived in Villach, and sent them too to the extermination camp. Then they gathered and sent Gypsies, Jews, partisans, and communists. He found that altogether about a thousand residents of Carinthia were murdered in Mauthausen and Auschwitz. Haider gathered the names of all the murdered and the circumstances of their deaths, and decided to commemorate those who lived in Villach, his home town
Mr. Heider initiated this monument. The monument is made of stainless steel pillars on which transparent glass panels hang, with the names of the murdered and their place of murder. It was designed by Hans Aeichnik, a teacher who taught with Haider in the same school. At first glance, the monument seems simple, but behind this simplicity there is a deep thought. The transparent glass panels are intended to illustrate that the victims were "transparent" till then. The glasses are not completely transparent, and when we come closer we see a reflection of ourselves, as in the mirror. This is to make a sense that the victims are within us. The modern glass and stainless steel contrast the ancient fence of the Church of Jacob behind it
The location was chosen in front of the Municipal museums, so visitors to the museum can see the monument as well. And also for a practical reason, this is one of the only places in central Villach where there is no shop or restaurant on the ground floor
Family relatives of the deceased come to visit the memorial, as it is the only place where they can reunite with the memory of their loved ones, burned in the Nazis' ovens. People come to lay flowers at the foot of the monument. Two public Holocaust memorials are held next to the monument each year. One on May 8, to mark the end of World War II, and the other on November 9 to mark the Kristallnacht. These events are attended by public figures and local school students, where Mr. Haider worked. He also conducts workshops for youth and adults, which hear testimonies from survivors of Nazis labor and extermination camps
The monument was vandalized 14 times. In the last time, in 2009, the police were able to arrest the vandalizes. They were young teenagers, brainwashed and incited by older neo-Nazis. Surprisingly and embarrassingly, some of them were former students of Hans Haider, the founder of the monument. "I went with the prosecutor and the judge to talk with the children and their parents," says Mr. Heider. "I proposed the dismissal of the lawsuit, provided they will renovate the monument themselves, and they'll finance the renovation and placing a security camera near the monument, and also they will come with me to visit a concentration camp. Their parents were happy their children were prevented from the court and criminal records." Since then, there have been no more vandalism cases in this monument
The Municipal Museum
The Municipal Museum has many exhibits of Villach's history, such as ancient coins, agricultural tools, etc. There are also few Jewish exhibits in the museum. In front of the entrance to the Municipal Museum we see a tombstone in Hebrew. It is engraved with the name of "Esther the daughter of Rabi Yedidya, wife of Zrubavel" who died in 1265. This is the oldest Jewish tombstone in all of Austria. This tombstone was brought from the nearby village of Judendorf
To the left of the museum door is another fragment of an ancient Jewish tombstone, dating back to 1350. It is difficult to read and understand the name of the deceased. This tombstone was discovered in 1971 in the nearby village of Mulschach. An old house was demolished there, and upon demolition they found that the window frame was made of a Jewish tombstone. Probably stolen from the old Judendorf cemetery or elsewhere
Inside the museum you will also see an ancient millstone made of a stolen Jewish tombstone with the name of Teacher Elhanan son of Rabbi Nachman. His date of death disappeared. This stone was also found in 1976 near the village of Judendorf
Local Jewish history
Villach was one of the oldest Jewish communities in Austria. Jews are mentioned in documents from 1242. There was a synagogue in Villach, built in 1354 at the corner of Freihausgasse and Gerbergasse streets. This synagogue was demolished in 1526. In the 19th century a new synagogue was built, and it went up in flames on Kristallnacht
Medieval document describes a license to establish a Jewish cemetery. Villach became a commercial center, and the Jews lived there prosper. There was neither a Yeshiva nor a rabbinical court in Villach. The small community was affiliated with the bigger Jewish community in Graz for the purposes of Beyt Din court. The young Jews studied at the High Yeshiva in Graz
The Hebrew book "Memoirs of the Neuerberger Souls" lists Villach among the places where Jews were persecuted in 1338 and 1349
Villach Jews were subject to the local bishop. Most of them made a living from financial loans. Medieval debt notes of Jewish lenders were found, and among the borrowing clients were nobles and bishops. The most important Jew in Villach in the 14th century was the converted Nicholas Ben Taube, who was a member of the city council even in the life of his Jewish mother. He later served as Chief Municipal Judge
Until the Holocaust, 40 Jewish families lived in Villach. Nowadays, I know of only one Jewish resident in Villach. She is the mayor's wife, Helmut Menznreiter, and she was born in Jerusalem
Jewish tourist sites outside Villach
About an hour's drive from Villach northbound towards Graz is the town of Wolfsberg where there was a large Jewish community in the Middle Ages. Today there is a 
Lavanthaus museum in Wolfsberg, where "Judenstein" "Jewish Stone " is displayed. It is written on it that in the 14th and 15th, the Jews were expelled following the black epidemic and the plague, and the Jewish dispersed in southern Austria. Not everywhere did they accepted the Jews and allowed them to live in equality between the Gentiles. Therefore, the Jews established their own villages bore Jewish names, such as Judendorf (Jewish Village) and Judenager (Jewish anger) and more alike
The village of Judendorf is located about ten minutes' drive from Villach. In 1940, during paving an extension of the road at the entrance to the village they found remaining of 13th century Jewish cemetery with bones and gravestones. Most of the gravestones were transferred to the Villach Municipal Museum and to research institutions
Today there are no Jews living in this picturesque village with the Jewish name, but there is a memory of the Jews. One tombstone was left in place, to honor local history. On one of the walls of a Pub built there, were erected one of the Jewish tombstones. Today, a kindergarten is operating in this building. I recommend visiting Jodendorf as well, and you should coordinate in advance
When traveling west on Route 92 toward the border with Slovenia, we pass through a 3 km long Loibl Pass North tunnel that connects Austria with Slovenia. This tunnel was carved by Jewish prisoners of Nazi labor camps during the Holocaust. Those labor camps were an extension of Mathhausen Nazi termination camp, and were located in both entrances to the tunnel. The camp doctor used to send the sick and the weak Jewish prisoners to Mathausen to burn them to death. On the rock right to the entrance to the tunnel in the Austrian side, there is a memorial plaque to those who were killed in this camp. On the Slovanian side there is a museum to honor the partisans who fought in the area
In Rosegg village, about a half-hour drive from Villach, there is another monument to Holocaust victims. This memorial commemorates the names of eight local partisans who were murdered by the Germans. The monument is in the form of a hollow iron cube, made of parts of a train wagon that was delivering prisoners to the concentration camps. The base of the monument is made of railroad tracks. One of the designers is Walter Pollesnik, explains that the names of the perpetrators appear like have been removed and torn off, and placed in a small pile in the center of the cube. This to show that they have been torn from the village and from this world. With the effort to read their names, it makes people bend over, thus to respect the names of the perpetrators
In the capital city of Carinthia, Klagenfurt, there are other Jewish sites described at this linked article
Hotels
At the entrance to Villach Main Street, in the building at the end of the bridge on the left, is the Hotel Goldenes Lamm. A cozy, recently renovated, 46-room hotel that works in collaboration with other hotels in the city for backup in full occupancy cases. The hotel owner, Mrs. Claudia Bojnehwp Lengfeld Spendier gives a personal treat and special service to every guest. She is proud of the Jewish origins of parts of her extended family. I stayed one night at this hotel, and really enjoyed it. Mrs. Claudia guarantees a 10% discount to every guest who presents himself as a reader of our "Jewish Traveler" website. boynehwp-spendier@goldeneslamm.at
The Shonleiten village on Mount ALM has a popular ski resort, and near the cable car there is the Almresort hotel. The hotel operates in winter only. It is located in a pastorally forest, and in the summer everything around it looks green and tranquil and peaceful. The hotel has 96 small apartments with 280 beds. Each apartment has a kitchenette with self-catering options. There is also a ski school for adults and children. The hours after skiing also include a gym, spa, sauna, and heated pool. Seems suitable for Israeli skiing enthusiasts too
For tour operators attention: Hotel manager, Nicole Jansa, says she is willing to make her hotel Kosher for religious groups for Passover and for the summer, that are the off-season for them. It turns out that she understands kosher even though she is not Jewish. She says her kitchens have pyrolytic ovens that can be easily become kosher, and she will buy new plates and cutlery especially for the religious groups of guests. The dining room has 150 seats, and there is a hall suitable for a synagogue
There are plenty of tourist attractions around the Almresort in the summer too. The "Carinthia Card" is also valid here. It allows free use of the cable car, entrance to the Eagle Observatory, Monkey Park, Linscrone Castle, and free boating at Lake Ossiachersee. And more. sales@almresort.eu
Near Faaker Lake there is the Natural Hotel & Resort that is very suitable for large 
religious families and groups. The resort has 32 small homes with 84 rooms, including 320 beds in total. In most of the houses there are 2 or 3 spacious bedrooms and a large living room. Suitable for two families as well. There is a children's pool and a children's club. Barbecue events, and we can bring our own kosher meat to their barbecues. It is an ideal spot for a belly-back vacation, as well as a starting point for daily "star trips". d.tiefenbacher@naturalhotels.com
About 3 km from the center of Villach are the THERMEN RESORT WARMBAD. There are warm mineral pools over the Urquelle basin. There are water slides, health treatments, a gym, spa, saunas, and great massages. A wonderful place to relax our body and muscles after a day trip. Above the baths is a modern 89-room Caravan Hof Hotel with 149 beds. Each door also has a mechanical key that can solve our problem of Shabbath with a magnetic card. Next to it there is another 5 stars luxury hotel, the first of its kind in Austria, that is owned by the same family for 8 generations. Medical treatments, and in the garden there are lovely pools with thermal water heat 29-32 degrees. Most of the guests are adults who come for treatment of three weeks. The hotel staff includes 25 physicians and 7-therapists. Www.warmbad.at
Kosher food
Rabbi Moshe Starik of the Chabad House in Vienna reports that in the Villach and Carinthia region there are companies that supply kosher food products on request and shipping to most hotels and zimmers. The menus and reservations on their websites
https://www.mpreis.at/sp/standorte/
https://www.therese-moelk.at/standorte.html
In addition, on the blog "Metaylim Bekipa" Mrs. Adi Weitz's sells an online brochure with details of all the kosher places in Austria, and the kosher products in general supermarkets. Link: www.metaylimbkipa.com/Austria-kosher-guide/
