Visit: 4th/5th April 2017

Graz – Austria’s second largest city – sits 150 km southwest of the capital. We travelled between the two via the Semmering Railway and spent one night in Graz after three nights in Vienna. After checking into a hotel near the centre of town we caught one of the city’s many trams to the suburbs, amongst which is located the Schloss Eggenberg.

Although I had timed our visit to fall just after the building reopened for the spring its interior was unfortunately closed off because of an inconsiderate film crew. Graz is on the UNESCO list for its Baroque buildings, of which Eggenberg is apparently an example. It is described as the finest residence in Styria, the second largest of Austria’s nine states. But, as I say, we weren’t able to go inside and see what all the fuss was about.

So we caught the tram back into the centre just as the heavens opened and the city was deluged with rain. Lacking umbrellas, we just rode until the downpour stopped, which meant a slightly longer-than-expected walk back to our hotel.

It meant we got to see more of Graz’s historic centre with its ornately-decorated medieval buildings. On reflection, it reminds me of three previously-visited World Heritage Sites:

• The rebuilt historic centre of Warsaw – for the decorated buildings in what I’m going to describe as ‘autumnal’ colours
• The city of Luxembourg – for its rapid changes in elevation and its prominent sleepy river adding to a pervasive sense of dampness.
• Bern – for its squat pillars and arches – as in the ‘Swarovski’ building, above. And for being a fellow four-letter city.

About that elevation: the city is built on mostly flat ground around the river, but there is a steep promontory rising high in the centre. At the top is a clock tower, so the following morning we climbed the many steps to get a look at the view.

The alien blob in the picture above is in fact not an apparition but a hyper-modernist arts centre. It looks hideously out of place, but I rather like it. Graz has always been an architecturally adventurous city, and it has clearly decided not to preserve itself in aspic – as is understandably (and rightly) the temptation at many World Heritage Sites.

Shortly before leaving for the return journey I tracked down a local sight: this unusual double-spiral staircase in the regional government building, the Burg. There isn’t any practical purpose to building a staircase like this but it was a good way to show off the area’s wealth and impress visitors. We were certainly impressed by it, but were soon out of time. A relaxing trip on the Semmering Railway returned us to Vienna, where we stopped at the Belvedere Palace en route to the airport, and then home.