Graz
A city whose clock has the big hand for the hours, and a blue museum across the river
- When to go
- September 16° · 12 rainy days
- Per day
- ~32 · 79 · 102 €budget · mid · comfort, per person · checked 21 Sep 2026
- How many days
- 2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 8 km Graz · 96 km Klagenfurt
- Right now
Graz has an old town on the UNESCO list since 1999, Eggenberg Palace on the same list since 2010 and, three hundred metres from the Hauptplatz across the Mur, the Kunsthaus of 2003, nicknamed the friendly alien for its shape. Give the old town and the Schlossberg one day, and Eggenberg and the museums a second.
The Schlossberg rises straight out of the city centre, and there are three ways up: the funicular, a lift through the rock, or the stairs. The funicular takes an ordinary city transport ticket, and an hour's ticket costs €3.20. The lift from Schlossbergplatz takes about a minute but has its own fare, €2.60, and city tickets are not valid on it. If you are only going up once, take the lift. If you are riding trams that day anyway, the funicular is already paid for.
Around Graz is Styria, with its wine roads to the south and its pumpkin seed oil. Styrian pumpkin seed oil has had EU protected geographical indication since 1996 and can only be pressed in Styria and southern Burgenland. A genuine bottle carries a white-and-green band with a control number; without it, it is not the protected oil.
Guides for Graz
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Graz in 2 days
→The first day stays in the old town and on the Schlossberg, the second crosses the river to the Kunsthaus and rides the…
Day trips from Graz
→A clifftop fortress, a zoo with a castle and a cave near Semriach share the same ticket — one that only works on…
Where to stay in Graz
→The old town keeps the sights within reach; Lend, across the river, keeps the lower price and the main station.
What to eat in Graz
→Breaded half a chicken, a bacon spread and a rosé from a local grape, plus a fixed set lunch that few other cities on…
The best time to visit Graz
→In Graz the date does not just change the temperature — it changes whether Eggenberg Palace is even open, and whether…
What to see in Graz
The clock tower
The tower is recorded from 1265 and took its present form, with a first clock of three large dials, in 1569. When Napoleon's army pulled down the fortress in 1809, the citizens paid to save the clock tower and the bell tower; the big hand on the clock marks the hours, because from a distance the hour mattered more than the minute.
free · 15 min
The Kunsthaus
A contemporary art museum from 2003, the year Graz was European Capital of Culture. The facade is a screen of fluorescent rings that shows images and text at night.
€13 · 1 h 30 · closed Monday
The Murinsel
A platform of steel and glass on the Mur itself, designed by Vito Acconci in the same year, 2003: a bridge, a café, an open-air stage and a playground in one.
free · 15 min
The Landhaus
A renaissance courtyard with arcades on three storeys, built by Domenico dell'Allio in 1557–1565 for the Styrian estates. The way in is from Herrengasse, two minutes from the Hauptplatz.
free · 20 min
The Landeszeughaus
The state armoury next to the Landhaus, holding more than 30,000 pieces of medieval and renaissance weapons and armour.
€13 · 1 h · closed Monday
Eggenberg
A baroque palace on the western edge of the city, on the UNESCO list with the old town since 2010. The number of its windows and rooms is tied to the calendar and the zodiac.
€20 · 50 min · closed out of season (Nov–Mar) · booking: recommended
Two things you probably did not know
The armoury in Graz holds around thirty-two thousand pieces of seventeenth-century weapons and armour on four floors, arranged as they were left. It is the largest surviving historic arsenal in the world.
Locals call the Kunsthaus, the blue building on the Mur, the friendly alien. Its facade is also a screen: nine hundred and thirty fluorescent rings behind acrylic show images visible from the far bank.
Ready for Graz?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Graz — day trips or weekends.
Austria
→A country crossed by train in five hours, from a Vienna coffee house to a Tyrolean cable car — so you choose the order, not the country
Germany
→A country with no single centre but a dozen, each convinced it is the main one
Italy
→The cities on the high-speed line are an hour or two apart; the coast, Matera and the Tuscan hills lie off it
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Klagenfurt, Vienna and Zagreb
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Graz if you have been.
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