Afritz am See is a municipality in the district of Villach-Land

Villach-Land

Bezirk Villach-Land is a district of the state ofCarinthia in Austria.-Municipalities:Towns are indicated in boldface; market towns in italics; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are indicated in small characters.*Arnoldstein **Agoritschach, Arnoldstein, Erlendorf, Gailitz,...

 in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

. It is located within the Gegend valley of the Nock Mountains

Central Eastern Alps

The Central Eastern Alps comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps with its highest peaks, located between the Northern Limestone Alps and the Southern Limestone Alps, from which they differ in geological composition....

 range, near the small Afritzer See (Lake Afritz). It consists of the Katastralgemeinden Afritz and Berg ob Afritz.
As the shaded Gegendtal was not settled until the late Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, the name Afritz was first mentioned in a 1408 deed, then an estate of the Grafschaft Ortenburg

Grafschaft Ortenburg

The Ortenburger were a medieval noble family in the Duchy of Carinthia, with roots in Bavarian nobility. An affiliation with the Counts of Ortenburg-Neuortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, is not established. Little is known about their reasons for settlement in...

. In 1973 the municipality merged with neighbouring Feld am See

Feld am See

Feld am See is a town in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is located in the Gegendtal valley of the Nock Mountains range at the shore of the Brennsee , between the mountains Mirnock and Wöllaner Nock...

but since 1991 is again a commune in its own right. The appendix am See was added in 2000, though officially Lake Afritz belongs to the municipal area of Feld am See.