Graz, Austria

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

AustriaStyria

Overview

Graz is Austria's second-largest city and the capital of Styria — a UNESCO World Heritage old town of red-tiled roofs and Renaissance arcaded courtyards crowned by the Schlossberg clock tower, with a young student-driven energy that sets it apart from Vienna and Salzburg.

UNESCO Old Town

Schloßberg, Uhrturm, arcaded Renaissance courtyards and the most intact historic centre in southern Austria.

Contemporary Art and Architecture

Kunsthaus Graz, the Murinsel, the Neue Galerie and a Capital-of-Culture-2003 legacy of bold public commissions.

Museums of the Joanneum

The world's largest historic armoury, the Alte Galerie at Schloss Eggenberg and the country's oldest universal museum network.

Styrian Cuisine

Kürbiskernöl, Backhendl, Sterz and the South Styrian Wine Road within an hour of the centre.

Festivals

steirischer herbst avant-garde festival in autumn, Styriarte in summer and the Diagonale national film festival in spring.
Travel Overview

Graz is Austria's second-largest city and the capital of Styria, set on the Mur river at the point where the Alps relax into the Pannonian hills. The defining contrast is between the UNESCO-listed old town — red-tiled roofs, arcaded Renaissance courtyards, the Schloßberg clock tower above it all — and a confident contemporary face whose best symbols are the biomorphic blue Kunsthaus Graz (the 'Friendly Alien' on the Lend embankment) and the Murinsel café-and-stage island in the river. A university population of close to 60,000 keeps the cafés, bars and culinary markets thoroughly active year round, the Landeszeughaus on Herrengasse holds the largest historic armoury in the world, and Schloss Eggenberg on the western edge is the second UNESCO-listed site, with its 365-window symbolism and Alte Galerie collections. Beyond the city, southern Styria's wine country and the South Styrian Wine Road sit within an hour.

Discover Graz

The wooded Schloßberg rises directly out of the centre and is the city's visual anchor; the 28-metre Uhrturm clock tower on top is Graz's emblem. From the Schlossbergplatz a stone staircase, a funicular (Schlossbergbahn) or a glass lift in the rock all climb to the summit, where the bell tower, the casemates and an open-air stage share a panorama that takes in the full red-roof grid of the UNESCO old town. The old town itself is best explored without a list: the Hauptplatz with the Rathaus and Erzherzog-Johann fountain, the courtyard of the Landhaus, and the inner-block arcades around Sporgasse and Sackstraße each open out into hidden Renaissance and baroque courtyards.

Diplomatic missions in Graz

22 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.