Graz

The name most likely comes from the Slavic gradec, "small castle", after a fort built by Alpine Slavs, but the town itself was founded by Bavarian settlers and first appears in records in 1128. Under the Babenbergs it became a commercial centre in the 12th century, and the Habsburgs granted it privileges in 1281. From the 15th century it was the residence of a younger Habsburg line, and the capital of Inner Austria, ruling Styria, Carinthia, most of today's Slovenia and parts of today's Italy. Italian architects shaped the city: Domenico dell'Allio built the Landhaus in 1557–1565, Archduke Karl II founded the university in 1585, and Johannes Kepler taught here from 1594 until Protestants were banned in 1600.

Graz stood on the frontier. Matthias Corvinus's Hungarians came in 1481 and the Ottomans in 1529 and 1532, but the Schlossberg fortress never fell, and the armoury has kept its weapons since 1551. When Ferdinand II became emperor in 1619 he moved the court to Vienna. Napoleon's troops occupied the city in 1797; in 1809 the fortress held out until the emperor ordered surrender, after which it was blown up, leaving only the clock and bell towers the citizens had ransomed.

Industrialisation and urban growth made Graz a major industrial, educational and cultural centre of southern Austria in the 19th and 20th centuries; Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born here. On 2 April 1945, during the heaviest Allied air raid, the Gestapo and Waffen-SS murdered resistance fighters, Hungarian Jewish forced labourers and prisoners of war at the Wetzelsdorf barracks. The old town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, Eggenberg Palace was added in 2010, and Graz was European Capital of Culture in 2003.

Graz pairs one of Central Europe's best-preserved old towns with a taste for the contemporary. The Capital of Culture year left the Kunsthaus — the "Friendly Alien" — and the Murinsel, the Graz School of architecture had already put experimental buildings around the universities, and in 2011 the city joined UNESCO's network as a City of Design. The Steirischer Herbst festival brings avant-garde art every autumn, and the Styriarte classical festival was founded in 1985 around the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Science runs deep: Ludwig Boltzmann taught here, Nikola Tesla studied at the polytechnic, Otto Loewi taught at the university, and Erwin Schrödinger was briefly its chancellor. The city was also a centre of Slovene culture — the first Slovene Catholic book was published here in 1574.

Locals call their dialect Steirisch and take pride in it. The Aufsteirern folk festival, a showcase for folk dance, costume and music, sits alongside a young street culture of festivals such as Lendwirbel and Grieskram. Football divides the city between SK Sturm Graz, several times Austrian champions, and the old rival Grazer AK, while the Graz 99ers play top-flight ice hockey.

Graz had about 308,000 residents with a main home in the city on 1 January 2026, and around 660,000 lived in its functional urban area in 2023. About 70 per cent of residents are Austrian citizens. With four universities and four other colleges, the city had more than 63,000 students in 2023, and their presence is felt in the cafés, bars and housing market.

The economy mixes cars, engineering and research — Magna Steyr assembles vehicles for other brands here — with the universities, the large university hospital, government and congresses. Tourism has grown since the World Heritage listing; after the pandemic, leisure and culture became the largest share of overnight stays, ahead of business travel.

People live across 17 districts, from the old-town Innere Stadt to the populous Jakomini and Lend and the quieter hillside suburbs. Politics stand out: the Communist Party (KPÖ) under Elke Kahr became the largest party in 2021, she was elected mayor that November, and in June 2026 the party won almost 36 per cent of the vote. A two-line metro was proposed in 2021, and the Koralm railway, fully opened on 14 December 2025, links the city with Klagenfurt.

Graz was named Austria's Capital of Culinary Delights, the GenussHauptstadt, for its place at the centre of a rich farming and wine region. Styria's signature product is Kürbiskernöl, a dark green oil pressed from roasted pumpkin seeds that holds EU protected status as Steirisches Kürbiskernöl and suits salads particularly well for its nutty flavour. The Grazer Krauthäuptel, a butterhead lettuce introduced from Carniola in the early 20th century, is the city's own salad leaf.

Heidensterz, a dry, almost crumbly buckwheat dish, is eaten in cold weather, and the Brettljause of a Buschenschank — the taverns where local winemakers serve their new wine — brings cold meats on a wooden board and Verhackertes, a spread of finely chopped raw white bacon. West Styria makes Schilcher, a very dry rosé from the indigenous Blauer Wildbacher grape, and Sturm, a semi-fermented grape juice, is drunk after the grape harvest.

The two farmers' markets on Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz are where locals buy produce and oil, and the bars and cafés of the old town, Lend and the university quarter fill with students late into the evening.