Linz is the provincial capital of Upper Austria and with 206,595 inhabitants the third largest city in Austria after Vienna and Graz.
After the end of the Second World War (1945) Linz had the reputation of a dusty steel city, which it owed to the largest employer, the steelworks of today’s Voestalpine AG. But thanks to improved environmental protection and numerous cultural initiatives, for example events such as the Linzer Klangwolke, the Bruckner Festival, the Pflasterspektakel and the Prix Ars Electronica or the Ars Electronica Festival, the city gradually gained a new image. The Crossing Europe film festival has been held annually since 2004. In 2013 the new Musiktheater am Volksgarten, a modern theater and opera house, was opened. With these and other initiatives, Linz was able to position itself as a city of culture, although some of the structures of the old industrial city are still visible. As a university city with several universities, Linz also has numerous courses in the arts and culture.
The city gives its name to the Linzer Torte, the recipe of which is considered the oldest known cake recipe in the world.
Tourist Attractions
Significant sights are located in the entire city center, the oldest part of Linz, among other places. The main street “Landstrasse” leads from Blumauerplatz to Taubenmarkt near the main square.
The main square, which was laid out around the year 1230, is one of the largest built-up squares in Europe with an area of 13,200 m². In the middle of the main square is the 20-meter-high Trinity Column made of white marble, built from 1717 to 1723, to commemorate the victims of the plague. Around the main square are many historically relevant and architecturally interesting houses, such as the one in the 16th and 17th centuries The 17th century old town hall, the Feichtinger house with its famous glockenspiel, which changes the melody depending on the season, the Kirchmayr house, the Schmidtberger house or the bridgehead building, which houses part of the Linz Art University.
West of the main square is the old town with many other historical buildings, such as B. Renaissance bourgeois houses or older houses with a baroque face. Near the castle, which was the residence of Emperor Friedrich III from 1489 to 1493. was the Romanesque St. Martin’s Church from the 11th century. To the east of the main square is the town hall district.
Exemplary selection of individual further sights:
- The Roman Catholic Church of the Conception Cathedral was built from 1862 to 1924 in neo-Gothic style and is the largest church in Austria.
- The Linzer Gugl-Stadion is an athletics and soccer stadium that is made available by the city of Linz to the FC Blau-Weiß Linz and the LASK (Linzer Athletik Sport Klub), which is the third oldest soccer club in Austria.
- In the Mozart House, which was built in the second half of the 16th century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the “Linz Symphony” and the “Linz Sonata” in just three days. The house itself can only be viewed from the outside, but the guest garden is open to the public.
- The house in Kremsmünster is located on the “Alter Markt” in the old town of Linz. According to legend, Emperor Friedrich III died here in 1493.
- The country house dates back to the 16th century and is today the seat of the governor, the state parliament and the provincial government of Upper Austria. The Italian-inspired arcaded courtyard is reminiscent of Johannes Kepler, who taught here at the Protestant landscape school for 14 years.
Other popular sights are the above mentioned, architecturally interesting and in the evening impressively illuminated museums (such as the Ars Electronica Center or the Lentos Art Museum), the Brucknerhaus, the tobacco factory, the Donaulände, the Linz harbor including Mural Harbor, the Voestalpine Stahlwelt or the Urfahr district. Nearby is the Pöstlingberg, from where the baroque pilgrimage basilica, the Linz Zoo or the fairy tale and dwarf kingdom of the Linz Grotto Railway can be visited.