The Graz old town on foot

The historic centre has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1999; in 2010 Schloss Eggenberg on the western edge of the city was added to the same entry. Since 2011 Graz has also been a UNESCO City of Design — a separate award, but one that explains why pointedly contemporary architecture keeps turning up between the Renaissance courtyards without looking like an accident.

The walk, in the order that works

Hauptplatz. The starting point, because everything converges here: the town hall along the southern side, the tram stop Hauptplatz/Congress, and in every direction a lane that leads somewhere. The square is not a place to linger — it is a transport junction with a handsome edge of façades. For sitting down, the squares behind it are better.

Sporgasse. Up towards the north-east, narrow, climbing, busy. If Graz has one lane that everybody photographs, this is it. Half way up is the Sorger bakery (Sporgasse 4), and further along ramen and sushi behind house numbers that date from the sixteenth century — the old-town mixture in a single sentence.

Paulustor and Karmeliterplatz. At the top of the Sporgasse the upper quarter opens up: the Paulustor, what is left of the town fortifications, and behind it the Volkskundemuseum, the folk life museum at Paulustorgasse 13. It goes quiet here very abruptly. If you need a break after forty minutes of crowds, this is where you find it, not on the Hauptplatz.

Burg and double spiral staircase. A few steps to the south stands the Burg, the old ducal castle, with its Doppelwendeltreppe — two stone staircases screwed into one another, meeting and parting again at every landing. It stands in an inner courtyard, it is free to walk in, and most visitors go straight past it because no sign announces it.

Dom, Mausoleum, Bürgergasse. Immediately next door. The Bürgergasse is one of the few lanes where a museum, a gallery and a residential building stand in the same row: the Diözesanmuseum (Bürgergasse 2), esc medien kunst labor (Bürgergasse 5), and unmarked doors in between.

Glockenspielplatz. A small square where two wooden figures clatter round in the gable three times a day. It is over quickly and exactly as twee as it sounds. The times are posted on the building — they have shifted over the years, so read them rather than trust them in advance.

Herrengasse and Landeszeughaus. South, down the wide shopping axis. Half way along is the Landeszeughaus (Herrengasse 16), the largest surviving historic armoury in the world: four floors of breastplates and halberds stacked shoulder to shoulder as in a depot, which is what it was. Anyone who thinks they are not interested in armour should still go in — the effect comes from the quantity, not from the individual pieces.

Joanneumsviertel. At the southern end. Under a single square lie the Neue Galerie, the Naturkundemuseum and CoSA in one shared basement, with nothing above ground but a glass roof light set into the paving. This is the point at which the City of Design title stops being a certificate.

Schlossbergplatz and Murinsel. Back north to the river. The Murinsel is a steel structure you can walk into in the middle of the Mur, half café, half sculpture, with a bridge to either bank. From here the way leads up the Schlossberg — steps, lift or funicular, and the differences are set out in the Schlossberg comparison.

What the walk costs — in time, not in money

The pure walking times are laughably short. From the Hauptplatz to the Joanneumsviertel, to the Paulustor or to the Schlossbergplatz is a few minutes in each case. Realistically the round still takes half a day to a whole one, because it touches a museum in at least four places and a coffee house in at least eight.

Two things about the route that no map shows:

• The old town slopes. North and north-east it goes uphill, towards the Schlossberg. Walk the round anti-clockwise — Herrengasse first, Sporgasse last — and the climb comes at the end instead of the start.
• The Mur divides more than it should. Only a few metres of water lie between the old town and Lend, but the bridges are not where you happen to want them. That regularly costs a five-minute detour — including in our own walking times, which are calculated as straight lines and know nothing about bridges.

What the old town leaves out

The counterpart to the old town stands on the other bank of the Mur. The Kunsthaus Graz (Lendkai 1) — the “friendly alien” — belongs to the story of this city as much as the clock tower does, but it stands in Lend, not in the historic centre. Walk the old town alone and you have seen one half of the Graz design story and skipped the other. Under a quarter of an hour on foot separates the two.

The same goes for food: the old town has wine taverns and coffee houses at high density, but the cooking Graz has become known for in recent years is mostly in Lend and Jakomini. The district-by-district overview is under Eating in Graz.

Staying on the route

Sleep in the Innere Stadt and you save yourself the walk — and pay for it in the room rate. The compromise that usually works in Graz is a house at the edge of the old town rather than in the middle of it: the same walking times, noticeably different prices.

The full comparison of every house in the historic centre is under Innere Stadt; which other locations get sold as “central” is sorted out in What “centre” really means in Graz.

By car: the old town is pedestrian zone for the most part, and the rest lies in the Blue Zone with a three-hour maximum. This is not an area to drive around looking for a space — the alternatives are set out under Parking in Graz.

Every sight recorded in our data — more than sixty of them — lies, together with parks, places to eat and tram stops, on the map with 1,249 places, where the walk can be reordered around your own accommodation instead of being thought out from the Hauptplatz.

Frequently asked questions