Graz


Graz is the capital of the Austrian state of Styria and the second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068. In 2023, the population of the Graz functional urban area stood at 660,238. Graz is known as a city of higher education, with four colleges and four universities. Combined, the city is home to more than 63,000 students. Its historic centre is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe.
The earliest documented mention of Graz dates to the 12th century, when it emerged as a fortified settlement under the rule of the Babenbergs. During the Late Middle Ages, the city developed into an important commercial and administrative center and, from the 14th century onward, served as the residence of the Inner Austrian branch of the Habsburg dynasty. This period was marked by significant cultural and architectural growth, with Renaissance and Baroque buildings shaping the historic city center. Graz also functioned as a strategic military stronghold against the Ottoman Empire, reflected in the fortifications constructed on the Schlossberg. In the 19th and 20th centuries, industrialization and subsequent modernization established Graz as a major urban and educational center, a role it continues to hold in contemporary Austria.
In 1999, the city's historic centre was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites and in 2010 the designation was expanded to include Eggenberg Palace on the western edge of the city. Graz was designated the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003 and became a City of Culinary Delights in 2008. In addition, the city is recognized as a "Design City" by UNESCO's Creative Cities Network.

Etymology

The name of the city, Graz, formerly spelled Gratz and also formerly known as Grätz, most likely derives from Slavic gradec/gradac 'small castle'. Some archaeological finds point to the erection of a small castle by Alpine Slavic people, who settled in the region after the barbarian invasions drove out the original Celts, as well as the Romans. In Slovene, gradec still means 'small castle', a hypocoristic derivative of Proto-West-South Slavic *gradьcъ, which descends via liquid metathesis from Common Slavic *gardьcъ and via the Slavic third palatalization from Proto-Slavic *gardiku, originally denoting 'small town, settlement'. The name thus follows the common South Slavic pattern for naming settlements grad.
Despite the Slavic root of the name, however, the city of Graz was founded by Bavarian settlers who arrived shortly after the Slavs, with whom they intermixed. The city's name first appears in records in 1128; a record of Grez from 1091 is disputed.

History

The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern city of Graz dates back to the Copper Age. However, no historical continuity exists of a settlement before the Middle Ages. The city was originally called "Bayrischgraz" or "Bavarian Graz" by the German founders to distinguish it from the elder "Windischgraz" or "Slovenian Graz". Bavarian Graz, however, soon eclipsed its Slovenian counterpart and henceforth Graz always referred to the German one.
During the 12th century, dukes under Babenberg rule made the town into an important commercial center. Later, Graz came under the rule of the Habsburgs and, in 1281, gained special privileges from King Rudolph I.
In the 14th century, Graz became the city of residence of the Inner Austrian line of the Habsburgs. The royalty lived in the Schlossberg castle and from there ruled Styria, Carinthia, most of today's Slovenia, and parts of Italy.
In the 16th century, the city's design and planning were primarily controlled by Italian Renaissance architects and artists. One of the most famous buildings representative of this style is the Landhaus, designed by Domenico dell'Allio, and used by the local rulers as a governmental headquarters.
The University of Graz was founded by Archduke Karl II in 1585, it is the city's oldest university. For most of its existence, it was controlled by the Catholic Church, and was closed in 1782 by Joseph II in an attempt to gain state control over educational institutions. Joseph II transformed it into a lyceum where civil servants and medical personnel were trained. In 1827 it was re-established as a university by Emperor Franz I, and was named 'Karl-Franzens Universität' or 'Charles-Francis University' in English. Almost 30,000 students are currently enrolled at this university as of 2025.
Astronomer Johannes Kepler lived in Graz for a short period beginning in 1594. He worked as district mathematician and taught at the Lutheran school, but still found time to study astronomy. He left Graz for Prague in 1600 when Protestants were banned from the city.
Ludwig Boltzmann was Professor for Mathematical Physics from 1869 to 1890. During that time, Nikola Tesla studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic in 1875.
Nobel laureate Otto Loewi taught at the University of Graz from 1909 until 1938. Ivo Andrić, the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate obtained his doctorate at the University of Graz. Erwin Schrödinger was briefly chancellor of the University of Graz in 1936.
Graz is centrally located within today's state of Styria, or Steiermark in German. Mark is an old German word indicating a large area of land used as a defensive border, in which the peasantry is taught how to organize and fight in the case of an invasion. With a strategic location at the head of the open and fertile Mur valley, Graz was historically a target of invaders, such as the Hungarians under Matthias Corvinus in 1481, and the Ottoman Turks in 1529 and 1532. Apart from the Riegersburg Castle, the Schlossberg was the only fortification in the region that never fell to the Ottoman Turks. Graz is home to the region's provincial armory, which is the world's largest historical collection of late medieval and Renaissance weaponry. It has been preserved since 1551, and displays over 30,000 items.
From the earlier part of the 15th century, Graz was the residence of the younger branch of the Habsburgs, which succeeded to the imperial throne in 1619 in the person of Emperor Ferdinand II, who moved the capital to Vienna. New fortifications were built on the Schlossberg at the end of the 16th century. Napoleon's army occupied Graz in 1797 and, in 1809 the city withstood another assault by the French army. During this attack, the commanding officer in the fortress was ordered to defend it with about 900 men against Napoleon's army of about 3,000. He successfully defended the Schlossberg against eight attacks, but they were forced to give up after the Grande Armée occupied Vienna and the Emperor ordered to surrender. Following the defeat of Austria by Napoleonic forces at the Battle of Wagram in 1809, the fortifications were demolished using explosives, as stipulated in the Peace of Schönbrunn of the same year. The belltower and the civic clock tower, which is a leading tourist attraction and serves as a symbol for Graz, were spared after the citizens of Graz paid a ransom for their preservation.
Archduke Karl II of Inner Austria had 20,000 Protestant books burned in the square of what is now a mental hospital, and succeeded in returning Styria to the authority of the Holy See. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz in what is now the Stadtmuseum.
On 2 April 1945, while the heaviest Allied bomb raid of Graz occurred, the Gestapo and Waffen-SS committed a massacre against resistance fighters, Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers, and POWs at the SS barracks at Graz-Wetzelsdorf.

Geography

Graz is situated on both sides of the river Mur in southeast Austria. It is about southwest of Vienna. The nearest larger urban centre is Maribor in Slovenia, which is about to the south. Graz is the capital of Styria and the largest city in the federal state, a green and heavily forested region on the eastern edge of the Alps. It is located in the Graz Basin and surrounded by mountains and hills to the north, east and west. The city centre sits at an elevation of, the highest point is Plabutsch mountain with at the western border. The mountain Schöckl is just a few kilometres to the north and surmounts the city by.

Climate

Graz has an oceanic climate, but due to the 0 °C isotherm, the same occurs in a borderline humid continental climate according to the Köppen climate classification. Wladimir Köppen himself was in town and conducted studies to see how the climate of the past influenced the Continental Drift theory. Due to its position southeast of the Alps, Graz is shielded from the prevailing westerly winds that bring weather fronts in from the North Atlantic to northwestern and central Europe. The weather in Graz is thus influenced by the Mediterranean, and it has more hours of sunshine per year than Vienna or Salzburg and also less wind or rain. Graz lies in a basin that is only open to the south, causing the climate to be warmer than would be expected at that latitude. Plants are found in Graz that normally grow much further south.
These towns and villages border Graz:
Graz is divided into 17 municipal districts :

Demographics

As of 1 January 2025, the city has a total population of 306,068, out of which are 215,785 with Austrian citizenship, 43,338 with EU citizenship, and 46,945 non-EU nationals.
NationalityPopulation
Croatia

Slovene minority

Graz, being the capital of the then multiethnic Duchy of Styria, was also a centre of Slovene culture, especially from the establishment of the University of Graz in 1586 until the establishment of the University of Ljubljana in 1919. In 1574, the was published in Graz, and in 1592, Hieronymus Megiser published in Graz the book Dictionarium quatuor linguarum, the first multilingual dictionary of Slovene.
In the 19th century the student associations in Graz were a crucible of Slovene nationalism and some Slovene students there were more nationally aware than other Slovenes. This led to fierce anti-Slovene efforts by the German supermajority in Graz before and during World War II. Slovenes only ever constituted a tiny minority in the city. This is also why Peter Kozler defined the Slovene territory based on ethnic grounds in his map.
Nowadays, some Slovenian Styrians study and some have found employment there, whiles being formerly unemployed in Slovenia.
A symposium on the relation of Graz and the Slovenes was held in Graz in 2010, at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the first and oldest chair of Slovene. It was established at the Lyzeum of Graz in July 1811 on the initiative of. A collection of lectures on the topic was published. The Slovenian Post commemorated the anniversary with a stamp.

Sights

For the year that Graz was Cultural Capital of Europe, new structures were erected. The Graz Museum of Contemporary Art was designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and is situated next to the river Mur. The Island in the Mur is a floating platform made of steel. It was designed by American architect Vito Acconci and contains a café, an open-air theatre and a playground.

Historic city centre

The historic city centre was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 due to the harmonious co-existence of typical buildings from different epochs and in different architectural styles. Situated in a cultural borderland between Central Europe, Italy and the Balkan States, Graz absorbed various influences from the neighbouring regions and thus received its exceptional townscape. Today the historic centre consists of over 1,000 buildings, their age ranging from Gothic to contemporary.
The most important sights in the historic centre are:
  • Town Hall.
  • The Castle Hill, a hill dominating the historic centre, site of a demolished fortress, with views over Graz.
  • The Clock Tower is a symbol of Graz, at the top of the Castle Hill.
  • The New Gallery, a museum of art.
  • The Castle Hill funicular, a funicular railway on the Castle Hill's slope.
  • The seat of Styria's provincial parliament, a palace in Lombardic style. It is one of the most important examples of Renaissance architecture in Austria and was built by Italian architect Domenico dell'Allio between 1557 and 1565.
  • The Armoury is the largest of its kind in the world.
  • The Opera House, the principal venue for opera, ballet, and operetta performances. It is the 2nd largest opera house in Austria.
  • The Theatre, Graz's principal theatre for productions of plays.
  • The Cathedral, a rare monument of Gothic architecture. Once, there were many frescos on the outer walls; today, only a few remain, like the Landplagenbild painted in 1485, presumably by Thomas von Villach. The three plagues it depicts are locusts, pestilence and the invasion of the Turks, all of them striking the town in 1480. It features the oldest painted view of Graz.
  • The mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II next to the cathedral, the most important building of Mannerism in Graz. It includes both the grave where Ferdinand II and his wife are buried, and a church dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria.
  • The City Park, located in the middle of the city centre during the Habsburg monarchy. It was designed by German architect Johannes Schirgie von Premstätten-Tobelbad. During the COVID-19 pandemic eccentric parties were celebrated which were later dissolved by the police. The responsible, Jonas Fabio Cristo Pinter, an Italian club owner, was arrested and the partying stopped. The City Park should not be confused with a similarly named shopping centre in Graz, called Citypark.
  • The Castle, with a Gothic double-helix staircase, built between 1438 and 1453 by Emperor Frederick III, because the old castle on the Castle Hill was too small and uncomfortable. The Castle remained the residence of the Inner Austrian Court until 1619. Today, it serves as residence for the Styrian government.
  • The Painted House in Herrengasse 3. It is completely covered with frescos.
  • The Graz Museum of Contemporary Art
  • The Island in the Mur, an artificial island in the Mur river.
  • Buildings, inner courtyards and roofscape of the old town.

    Outside the historic city centre

  • Eggenberg (Graz)|Eggenberg Palace] a baroque palace on the western edge of Graz with State rooms and museum. In 2010 it was added to the existing World Heritage site of the historic centre of Graz.
  • The Mariatrost Basilica a late Baroque church, on the eastern edge of Graz.
  • The Jesus's Heart Church is the largest church in Graz with the third highest spire in Austria, built in Gothic Revival style.
  • The Calvary Hill in the Gösting area of Graz with a 17th-century calvary and church.
  • The Graz University Hospital is the largest hospital in Graz and one of the largest hospitals in Austria. It is the largest Jugendstil building complex in Austria and was built between 1904 and 1912. It is run by the federal state Styria and is one of the most renowned hospitals in Austria and Central Europe.
  • The Gösting Ruin, a ruin of a hilltop castle on the city's northwestern edge, and Plabutsch/Fürstenstand, behind Eggenberg Palace, with a hilltop restaurant and viewing tower, as well as Buchkogel/Kronprinz-Rudolf-Warte are viewpoints for vistas of the city.

    Greater Graz area

  • Austrian Open-Air Exhibition Stübing, an open-air museum containing old farmhouses/farm buildings from all over Austria reassembled in historic settings.
  • The Lur Cave, the most extensive cave system in Austria.
  • The Piber Lipizzan Stud, Lipizzaner stud at Piber, where the famous horses are bred.
  • Eight Styrian wine trails through wine-growing regions in Styria.
  • The Thermal Baths Region, spa region east of Graz.
  • Riegersburg Castle, a mighty fortress that never was conquered. It was a bastion against Turkish invasions.

    Politics

For much of its post-war history Graz was a stronghold of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, but since the late 1990s the party has lost most of its support on a local level. It was overtaken by the Austrian People's Party in 2003, which remained the largest party in the city council until 2021. With the decline of the SPÖ, the Communist Party of Austria has become highly popular in Graz, despite its negligible presence on a national level. The party placed third with 20.8% of votes in the 2003 local election, which has been attributed to the popularity of local leader Ernest Kaltenegger. It fell to 11.2% in 2008, and recovered under new leader Elke Kahr, becoming the second most popular party in Graz with 19.9% in 2012 and 20.3% in 2017. The KPÖ's popularity in Graz allowed them to enter the Styrian provincial parliament in the 2005 election, marking their first appearance in an Austrian provincial parliament in 35 years; they have retained their seats in the subsequent 2010, 2015, and 2019 elections. The 2021 municipal election saw a collapse in the ÖVP's popularity, allowing the KPÖ, once again led by Elke Kahr, to become the largest party with 29% of votes. She was subsequently elected mayor in November, leading a coalition with the Greens and SPÖ.
The most recent city council election was held on 26 September 2021, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party
! Lead candidate
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
!
! +/-
! colspan=3| Invalid votes
! 1,807
! colspan=3| Total
! 120,689
! 100.00
! 48
! ±0
! 7
! ±0
! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout
! 223,512
! 54.00
! 3.39

Culture

During 2003 Graz held the title of "European Capital of Culture" and was one of the UNESCO "Cities of Design" in 2011.

Museums

The most important museums in Graz are:
  • Eggenberg Palace (Schloss Eggenberg) with the Old Gallery , Coin Collection, Lapidarium, Archaeological Museum a special exhibitions area and the 90,000 m2 romantic landscape gardens.
  • History Museum : museum of Styrian cultural history from the Middle Ages to the present.
  • New Gallery : visual arts from the 19th and 20th centuries.
  • Natural History Museum: exhibition of botany, mineralogy and zoology.
  • Graz Museum
  • Graz Museum of Contemporary Art (Kunsthaus Graz)
  • City Park Forum : museum of contemporary art.
  • Camera Austria: museum of contemporary photography.
  • Armoury (Landeszeughaus): medieval armoury comprising 32,000 pieces of armour and weaponry, largest of its kind in the world.
  • Folklore Museum : museum of folk culture and folklore.
  • Diocesan Museum : museum of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • Styrian Arts Hall : exhibition hall of contemporary visual arts.
  • Literature House : museum of contemporary German literature.
  • Museum of Perception : museum of the senses, samadhi bath.
  • Children's Museum Frida & Fred : museum for children.
  • Tram Museum: 40 historic trams, the oldest dating from 1873.
  • Kriminalmuseum: museum of criminology.
  • Aviation Museum : situated at Graz Airport.
  • Hanns Schell Collection: key and lock museum, largest of its kind in the world.
  • Austrian Sculpture Park: seven hectares of contemporary sculpture.
  • Botanical Garden of Graz: three architecturally interesting glass houses plus gardens.
Several of the aforementioned museums are part of the Joanneum Universal Museum, which consists of 20 museums.

Architecture

The city centre and the adjacent districts are characterized by the historic residential buildings and churches. In the outer districts buildings are predominantly of the architectural styles from the second half of the 20th century.
In 1965 the Graz School was founded. Several buildings around the universities are of this style, e.g. the green houses by Volker Giencke and the RESOWI Centre by Günther Domenig.
Before Graz became European Capital of Culture in 2003, several new projects were realized, such as the Graz City Hall - a multifunctional space for e.g. conventions and concerts -, the Children's Museum, the Helmut List Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Island in the Mur.
  • Tallest buildings
Buildings in Graz which are at least 50m tall:
Name or AddressCompletionUsageHeight floors
1.Jesus's Heart Church (Herz-Jesu-Kirche)1887church109
2.Elisabeth Building 1964residential7525
3. 4.Kärntner Straße 212, Liebenauer Hauptstraße 3091968 and 1955residential6921
5.Franciscan Church 1240church69
6.Alpha Tower1960/2 floors added in 2015residential6721
7.Telekom Austria Tower1960soffice6515
8.Basilica Mariatrost1724church61-
9.Styria Media Center2014office6015
10.Science Tower2017office6012 plus skygarden
11. 12. 13. 14.St. Peter Pfarrweg, Kindermanngasse, Hanuschgasse, Algersdorferstraße1960/70sresidential5517
15. 16. 17. 18.Vinzenz Muchitschstraße, Ungergasse, Kärntner Straße 216, Eggenberger Gürtel1970sresidential5216

Sports

is the main football club of the city, with Four Austrian championships, 5 Austrian Cup wins and 4 participations in the Champions League. Grazer AK also won an Austrian championship, but went into administration in 2007 and was excluded from the professional league system.
In ice hockey, ATSE Graz was the Austrian Hockey League champion in 1975 and 1978. EC Graz was runner-up in 1991–92, 1992–93 and 1993–94. Graz 99ers has played in the first division since 2000.
UBSC Raiffeisen Graz plays in the Austrian Basketball League.
Graz Giants play in the Austrian Football League.
The city bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, but lost the election to Salt Lake City.

Styriarte

Graz hosts the annual festival of classical music Styriarte, founded in 1985 to tie conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt closer to his hometown. Events have been held at different venues in Graz and in the surrounding region.

Dialect

Referred to as Steirisch by locals, Graz belongs to the Austro-Bavarian region of dialects, more specifically a mix of Central Bavarian in the western part of Styria and Southern Bavarian in the eastern part. The Styrian subsidiary of Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF launched an initiative in 2008 called Scho wieda Steirisch g'redt to highlight the numerous dialects of Graz and Styria in general and to cultivate the pride many Styrians hold for their local culture. Two reasons for a melding of these dialects with Standard German: the influence of television and radio bringing Standard German into the home and the industrialization causing the disappearance of the single farmer since the farming communities are seen as the true keepers of dialect speaking.

Transport

An extensive public transport network makes Graz an easy city to navigate without a car. The city has a comprehensive bus network, complementing the Graz tram network, which has six lines. Four lines pass through the underground tram stop at the central train station and on to the city centre before branching out. Furthermore, there are eight night-time bus routes, although these run only at weekends and on evenings preceding public holidays.
The Castle Hill funicular (Schlossbergbahn), and the Castle Hill lift (Schlossberg lift), a vertical lift, link the city centre to the Castle Hill (Schlossberg).
From the central train station, regional trains link to most of Styria. Direct trains run to most major cities nearby including Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Maribor and Ljubljana in Slovenia, Zagreb in Croatia, Budapest in Hungary, Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic, Zürich in Switzerland, as well as Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt in Germany. Trains for Vienna leave every hour. In recent years many railway stations within the city limits and in the suburbs have been rebuilt or modernised and are now part of the Styria S-Bahn, a commuter train service connecting the city with its suburban area and towns nearby.
Graz Airport is located about south of the city centre and is accessible by bus, railway, taxi and car. Direct destinations include Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul, London, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. In 2021 a two-line metro system was proposed for Graz, which would make Graz the second Austrian city with a rapid transit system after Vienna.

Health

In Graz there are seven hospitals, several private hospitals and sanatoriums, as well as 44 pharmacies.
The University Hospital Graz is located in eastern Graz and has 1,556 beds and 7,190 employees. The Regional Hospital Graz II has two sites in Graz. The western site is located in Eggenberg and has 280 beds and about 500 employees, the southern site specializes in neurology and psychiatry and is located in Straßgang with 880 beds and 1,100 employees. The AUVA Accident Hospital is in Eggenberg and has 180 beds and a total of 444 employees.
The Albert Schweitzer Clinic in the western part of the city is a geriatric hospital with 304 beds, the Hospital of St. John of God has two sites in Graz, one in Lend with 225 beds and one in Eggenberg with 260 beds. The Hospital of the Order of Saint Elizabeth in Gries has 182 beds.
There are several private clinics as well: the Privatklinik Kastanienhof, the Privatklinik Leech, the Privatklinik der Kreuzschwestern, the Sanatorium St. Leonhard, the Sanatorium Hansa and the Privatklinik Graz-Ragnitz.
EMS in Graz is provided solely by the Austrian Red Cross. Perpetually two emergency doctor's cars, two NAWs and about 30 RTWs are on standby. Furthermore, several non-emergency ambulances and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) are operated by the Red Cross to transport non-emergency patients to and between hospitals. In addition to the Red Cross, the Labourers'-Samaritan-Alliance, the Austrian organisation of the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps and the Green Cross operate ambulances for non-emergency patient transport. In addition to the cars, there's also the C12 air ambulance helicopter stationed at Graz airport, staffed with an emergency physician in addition to regular personnel.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Graz is twinned with:
;Other forms of cooperation and city friendship similar to the twin city programmes:
The following are some past and present notable residents of Graz.