Chapter 54 - Graz

We visited Graz last Sunday. It's the second-largest city in Austria with a population of almost 300,000 and the capital of the state of Styria. You never know if you're going to like a place or not, and although I always expect to enjoy the places we visit, neither of us cared that much for Graz. It's pretty in the Old Town area and is a World Cultural Heritage Site, but we just didn't get a good feeling.

First settled in the Copper Age, the town's name comes from a South Slavic word, "gradec," which means small castle. Apparently, a heavily fortified "castle" was built for protection sometime during the Dark Ages. The German name, "Graz," was first used in 1128 when Babenberg dukes ruled the area. Graz is close to the Slovenian border and was frequently assaulted by Hungarians and Turks who never took the town. It later came under the rule of the Habsburgs which used it as a city of residence for its Inner Austrian line.

The first university was founded in 1585. Among the great scientists who studied or taught at Graz universities are Nikola Tesla, Otto Loewi, Johannes Kepler and Erwin Schrodinger. Today 44,000 students attend six universities.

Some of the less savory incidents in Graz history include ruthless control of the university by the Catholic Church, the burning of 20,000 Protestant books by Archduke Charles II, the banning of Lutherans from the city (which is why Kepler moved to Prague) and the destruction of the thriving Jewish community by the Nazis and the burning of the grand synagogue.

At first I thought this was a plague column, but it isn't. It's a column commemorating victory over the Turks in 1664.


This is a fountain in the square in Old Town next to the column.


Part of the pedestrian area in Old Town


Beautiful flowers in Old Town


Some buildings in the Old Town area






I love the way these buildings have interesting statues decorating the corners.


Bob liked this copper weathervane.


This is Sacred Heart Church. It was built in Gothic Revival style in the 19th century and has the third highest spire in Austria at 359.6 feet.


The side entrance


Looking down the nave toward the altar


The main altar


The pulpit


Two of the Stations of the Cross that adorn the side walls


The church has some of the few extant examples in Austria of Neogothic stained glass. Here are two of the beautiful stained glass windows.




We found this graffiti to be particularly unsettling. To have anti-Nazi sentiments expressed, one presumes that there is neo-Nazi activity in the area. We did notice that Graz has a more varied ethnic population, probably because of the universities, so maybe that has contributed to some of these problems. One always hopes that mankind does learn from the past, especially after our recent visit to Mauthausen. Perhaps this contributed to our diffident reaction to the city.




This cheered Bob up. He loves the way these pigeons are so totally unafraid of people.


This is the first in what we had planned as a series of pictures of the Landhaus, a Renaissance building designed by Domenico dell'Allio, and now used as government headquarters. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the last picture we took that day. The batteries died in the camera, and since nothing is open in Austria on Sundays (except restaurants), we couldn't replace them.