Where to Stay in Graz, Steiermark

What is Graz known for?

Graz is the capital of Styria and the second city of Austria, with an old town complete enough to carry a UNESCO listing alongside Eggenberg Castle. Armour fills one palace. The Styrian Armoury still holds the arsenal raised against Ottoman raids, the Kunsthaus Graz squats on the far bank as a blue glass creature among tiled roofs, and four universities keep the streets young.

What are the main landmarks in Graz?

Graz keeps its landmarks between a hill and a river. The Schlossberg carries what remains of the fortress and the clock tower the citizens bought back from Napoleon's engineers, while Graz Cathedral and the domed mausoleum beside the Katharinenkirche stand together at the foot of the slope. Armour is the real surprise.

The Styrian Armoury holds floor after floor of helmets, breastplates and pole arms, the Universalmuseum Joanneum runs the Neue Galerie and the Kunsthaus Graz between them, and Eggenberg Castle keeps its own park west of the centre.

What is the history of Graz?

Graz takes its name from a Slavic word for a small castle. A fort on the Schlossberg watched the crossing of the Mur, and the town below grew into the seat of the inner-Austrian Habsburgs, who ruled Styria, Carinthia and the lands toward the Adriatic from here. Ottoman raids shaped it.

The Styrian Armoury was built to hold weapons for the whole province against them, and it holds them yet, floor upon floor, because the province kept its arsenal when other cities emptied theirs. Johannes Kepler taught mathematics in the town school during those same years. Ferdinand II was born in Graz and raised the mausoleum that stands beside the cathedral, and once the court had moved to Vienna the place settled into the part of a provincial capital with good schools and cheap rooms.

Napoleon's army took the hill in 1809 and blew the fortress up. The townspeople paid to save the clock tower and the bell tower, which is why the pair still stand on an otherwise cleared summit. Industry, four universities and a stubborn conservation policy did the rest, and the old town survived complete enough for a UNESCO listing.

Where is Graz?

Graz lies on the Mur where the eastern Alps break down into open country. The Schlossberg and the Plabutsch stand as wooded knots inside and beside the built-up area, and the river runs from north to south through the middle, holding the old town apart from Lend and Gries. Hills close the north.

Southward the valley widens into the Styrian basin, vineyard and orchard country running on toward the Slovenian border.

What is the climate of Graz?

Graz sits in the lee of the Alps and takes its warmth from the south. Mediterranean air reaches this basin more easily than the cold that stalls behind the mountains, so summers run long and hot enough to ripen the vineyards below the city, and autumn can hold clear for weeks together. Winter inverts the order.

Cold air settles on the valley floor under the Schlossberg and grey fog sits there for days while the wooded hills above stand in full sun.

How do you get to Graz?

Graz Hauptbahnhof stands west of the Mur, a short tram ride from the Hauptplatz. The line north to Vienna climbs the Semmering, an alpine railway of tunnels and viaducts, while trains south run through to Maribor and Ljubljana. An airport sits down the valley.

Motorways follow the same corridor, north over the passes and south to the Slovenian border, and inside the city the tram network does the work.