The largest town in the region, St. Johann im Pongau is a popular resort, visited for its excellent skiing conditions in winter and its plentiful facilities for swimming and walking in summer. Little remains of its original buildings due to a series of fires in the 19th century; the present town was almost entirely rebuilt. The Neo- Gothic Domkirche, the cathedral of St John the Baptist (1861), is acclaimed as the most outstanding work of Neo-Classicism in the Salzburg area. Its architects were Georg Schneider and Josef Wessiken. The charming carved altarpiece (1530) in adjacent St Anna’s Chapel has late-Gothic wooden figures of saints. Some 5 km (3 miles) south of the town run the torrential waters of Grossarler Ache, a rapid mountain stream that winds through the scenic Liechtensteinklamm.
