🇦🇹 Austria · Styria and the Centre
Graz is one of those cities that surprises first-time visitors: Austria's second city is far less well known than Vienna or Salzburg, but it hides one of the best preserved old towns in all of central Europe, listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Walking its streets means crossing centuries of medieval, Renaissance and baroque architecture, with elegant squares, inner courtyards with galleries, red-tiled roofs and, presiding over everything from its wooded hill, the unmistakable Clock Tower of the Schlossberg, the symbol of the city.
But Graz is not a museum-city anchored in the past. It is, above all, a young and creative city, with tens of thousands of university students who give it a lively pulse, bars and cafés that are always full, and one of the most interesting food scenes in the country (Styria is called the 'larder of Austria' for good reason, with its pumpkins, its famous pumpkin seed oil and its southern wines). That coexistence of old and new is there to see, quite literally: next to the Unesco World Heritage old town stands the Kunsthaus, a contemporary art museum of organic, bluish forms that the people of Graz affectionately christened 'the friendly alien', and in the middle of the river Mur floats the Murinsel, a steel and glass island-bridge.
This guide covers the essentials of Graz in a practical, friendly way: how to get up the Schlossberg, what to see in the old town, where Eggenberg Palace is, how to get around by tram, what to eat and how to use the city as a base for discovering the rest of Styria, one of the greenest, calmest and tastiest regions in Austria.
Graz was born at the foot of a fortified hill beside the river Mur. Its very name recalls this: it comes from the Slavic word 'gradec' ('little castle' or 'fortress'), evidence of the Slavic peoples who populated the region before the Bavarians arrived. The fortress on the Schlossberg gave rise to the settlement, which appears in documents as a town as early as the 12th century and obtained town rights in the 13th. During the Middle Ages and, above all, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Graz was the residence of the 'Leopoldian' branch of the Habsburgs and the capital of what was called Inner Austria (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Adriatic littoral): much of its Renaissance palaces, the galleried courtyard of the Landhaus and the Armoury (Landeszeughaus), preserved as the largest historic arsenal in the world, date from that period of splendour. The city was also a defensive bastion against Ottoman and Hungarian raids, which explains the enormous accumulation of weapons and armour in its arsenal. In 1619, Archduke Ferdinand — educated in Graz — became emperor and moved the court to Vienna, so the city lost political rank but kept its heritage. The Schlossberg fortress was dismantled by Napoleon's troops after the treaties of the early 19th century, but the citizens managed to save two of its symbols by paying a ransom: the Clock Tower (Uhrturm) and the bell tower (Glockenturm), which still crown the hill. In 1999 the old town was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, extended in 2010 to include Eggenberg Palace. European Capital of Culture in 2003 and a Unesco City of Design since 2011, Graz today combines its imperial heritage with a young, university-driven and creative outlook. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The "green heart" of Austria: Styria, a land of iron and forests that was for centuries the Habsburg frontier with the Ottomans, with Graz and its great armoury; and Carinthia, the region of warm lakes in the south, whose membership of Austria was decided in the plebiscite of 1920.
Read the history of Styria and the Centre →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The name of Graz reveals its origin: it comes from the Slavic word 'gradec', meaning 'little castle' or 'fortress'. Before the Bavarians arrived and the region became firmly Germanic, these lands in the valley of the river Mur were populated by Slavic peoples (Alpine Slovenes), who built a fortification on the hill we now call the Schlossberg, in a naturally defensible position overlooking the crossroads and the river crossing.
That fortress on the hill was the seed of the settlement. At the foot of the hill, protected by the castle, a market and an urban core grew up. The region became part of the March of Styria, which in the 12th century became a duchy within the Holy Roman Empire. Graz appears in documents as a town as early as the 12th century and obtained town rights in the 13th, establishing itself as one of the most important centres in the southeast of the German-speaking lands.
From the start, then, the city was born in the shadow of its fortified hill, a feature that would shape its identity and its skyline for ever.
Graz's great moment of splendour came in the late Middle Ages and, above all, during the 15th and 16th centuries. The city became the residence of the 'Leopoldian' (later 'Styrian') branch of the House of Habsburg and the capital of what was called Inner Austria (Innerösterreich), which brought together Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Adriatic littoral, with Trieste and Fiume. From Graz an extensive territory reaching down to the sea was governed.
Emperor Frederick III, who lived in the city, left his mark on numerous buildings with his famous motto 'A.E.I.O.U.'. Much of the Renaissance palaces of Graz date from this period of power, along with the Landhaus courtyard with its arcaded galleries — the work of master builders from northern Italy — and the Italian feel that still sets the old town apart today. The arrival of Italian architects, artists and merchants turned Graz into a cultural bridge between the Germanic and the Mediterranean worlds.
It was also a time of religious tension, with a strong advance of Protestantism and the later Counter-Reformation driven by the Habsburgs and the Jesuits, who founded a university in the city in 1585.
During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, Styria was a frontier region exposed to raids by Ottoman armies and Hungarian troops. Graz, as the capital of Inner Austria, was a key defensive bastion: it had to be ready to arm the population and the militias quickly in the event of an attack. To that end it kept an enormous arsenal stocked with weapons and armour.
That arsenal is today the Landeszeughaus, the largest preserved historic weapons store in the world, with some 32,000 pieces — armour, helmets, swords, pikes, muskets, pistols and cannon — laid out over four floors just as they were stored centuries ago. It is the most impressive evidence of that defensive role of the city. The Schlossberg fortress, for its part, was strengthened by Italian military engineers until it became practically impregnable, and it withstood several sieges.
The Ottoman threat, which came as far as besieging Vienna in 1529 and 1683, kept Graz on military alert for generations, and explains the density of fortifications and weaponry the city built up in that period.
In 1619, Archduke Ferdinand — who had grown up and been educated in Graz — was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand II, and moved the court to Vienna. The city thus lost its rank as an imperial residence and its first-rate political role, although it kept its architectural heritage intact. Ferdinand left one of its gems in Graz: the Mausoleum, a masterpiece of mannerism and the early baroque, where he is buried with his family, with interiors by the young Fischer von Erlach.
Two centuries later, during the Napoleonic wars, Graz again suffered the consequences of great European politics. After the Austrian defeats, the treaties of the early 19th century required the Schlossberg fortifications to be dismantled. Napoleon's troops blew up much of the fortress. However, the citizens of Graz managed to save two of its best-loved features by paying a ransom: the Clock Tower (Uhrturm) and the bell tower (Glockenturm), which still crown the hill today and are the city's great symbols.
Out of that demolished fortress would come, in the 19th century, the wooded park that today makes the Schlossberg the great viewpoint and green lung of Graz.
The 19th century brought Graz a key figure: Archduke Johann (Erzherzog Johann), the emperor's brother, much loved in Styria, who drove science, education and the modernisation of the region. In 1811 he founded the Joanneum, the oldest public museum in Austria, today the great Universalmuseum Joanneum complex. The city grew as a university, industrial and administrative centre, keeping its old town almost intact while expanding around it.
That exceptional state of preservation was recognised in 1999, when Unesco inscribed the historic centre of Graz on the World Heritage List, as one of the best preserved urban ensembles in central Europe, with its harmonious mixture of medieval, Renaissance, baroque and modernist styles. In 2010, the inscription was extended to include Eggenberg Palace, with its cosmic symbolism of rooms, windows and towers.
Far from being stuck in the past, Graz strengthened its young, creative profile in the 21st century: it was European Capital of Culture in 2003 — the year it unveiled the Kunsthaus and the Murinsel — and a Unesco City of Design since 2011. Today it combines its imperial legacy and its thousand-year-old heritage with a vibrant university, food and design scene, in a balance between old and new that defines its character.