Linz
A steel and river-port town that became a UNESCO City of Media Arts
- When to go
- September 17° · 9 rainy days
- Per day
- ~65 · 84 · 103 €budget · mid · comfort, per person · checked 21 Sep 2026
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 11 km Linz
- Right now
Linz is Austria's third-largest city and fits into a day between Vienna and Salzburg: the Hauptplatz, the Ars Electronica Center across the Danube and the tram up the Pöstlingberg. A steelworks and a river port defined it for decades; the Ars Electronica festival, held since 1979, earned it the title of UNESCO City of Media Arts in 2014.
The main station is 1.8 kilometres from the Hauptplatz in a straight line, so you ride the tram down the Landstraße to the square. From there everything is within half a kilometre: Lentos on the riverbank beside the square, the Ars Electronica Center just over the Nibelungenbrücke, and the tram up the Pöstlingberg leaving from the square itself.
The Pöstlingberg is not a funicular but a tram. The line has run since 1898, has left from the Hauptplatz since 2009, and climbs about 260 metres at gradients of up to 11.6%, which makes it one of the steepest railways in the world running without a rack. A return ticket is €9; from March to October it runs every 15 minutes at weekends between 10:00 and 17:00, otherwise every half hour. At the top are a baroque church of 1742–1747, a terrace looking over the city and the Grottenbahn, a fairy-tale cave ride for children.
Guides for Linz
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Linz in 1 day
→Linz fits into a day without a car: the square, the museum across the river and the tram up the hill, in that order…
Day trips from Linz
→St Florian and Gmunden fit into half a day, Hallstatt with its change wants a full one — all three run on the same…
Where to stay in Linz
→Linz is usually seen in a single day between Vienna and Salzburg, so where to sleep comes down to two questions…
What to eat in Linz
→Linzer torte is sold whole here, not by the slice, Bosna is a quick sandwich to eat on the move, and the Klosterhof…
The best time to visit Linz
→The date in Linz changes more than the river temperature — it decides whether the main museums are open at all, and how…
What to see in Linz
The Ars Electronica Center
A museum of technology and digital art on the north bank, opened in 1996 and extended in 2009. Its skin of 1,100 glass panels, each with an LED bar, changes colour at night; admission is €14 and is valid for 24 hours of opening time, so a ticket bought in the afternoon covers the next morning too.
€14 · 2 h · closed Monday
Hauptplatz
A square of 13,200 square metres laid out in the thirteenth century, with the tram running across it. The Trinity Column in the middle, 19.6 metres tall, went up in 1723 as a vow of thanks for deliverance from war, fire and plague.
free · 30 min
The Mariendom
Austria's largest church by capacity, holding up to 20,000 people, built from 1862 to 1924. Its 134-metre tower is two metres lower than Vienna's Stephansdom, and inside are more than forty large painted windows.
free · 30 min
Lentos
A museum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art from 2003, in a long glass box on the south bank. Its facade lights up at night, pairing it across the river with the Ars Electronica Center.
€12 · 1 h 30 · closed Monday
Linzer torte
A 1653 cookbook kept in the library of Admont Abbey holds four recipes bearing the name of Linz. It is the oldest known written cake recipe.
Mauthausen
The former Nazi concentration camp, 17 kilometres east in a straight line, now a memorial. Admission to the memorial grounds is free; from March to late October it opens daily 9:00 to 17:30, and in July and August a public guided tour in English as well as German starts daily at 13:00.
free · half a day · closed Mondays in winter (27 Oct–28 Feb), and 24–26 Dec, 31 Dec–1 Jan
Two things you probably did not know
Ars Electronica in Linz has run since 1979 and is one of the oldest festivals and museums of digital art in the world. It is why the city is a UNESCO City of Media Arts.
The Linzer torte is considered the oldest cake with a written recipe in the world; the earliest known recipe dates from 1653 and is kept in Vienna. It is recognised by the lattice of pastry over redcurrant jam.
Ready for Linz?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Linz — 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: Český Krumlov, Hallstatt and The Wachau
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Linz if you have been.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.