Semester Trip 2024 (19 Jul) - 9 - Graz

 We left Bratislava fairly early in the morning and arrived in Graz mid morning. Graz is the second largest city in Austria (after Vienna) and is the capital of the Styria region. It is a university town, with a historic UNESCO listed city centre.

The town's name likely means "small castle" from the Slavic word Gradec, which changed to Gratz and then Graz. The area where the town is located has been settled since the Copper Age (5000 BC) and the city was first appears in historical papers in the Middle Ages as Bayrischgraz or Bavarian Graz. 

We started our exploration of the city by finding a car park near the Kunthaus Graz, the Graz Art Museum. The museum was built in 2003 and has an acrylic glass façade, capable of being lit and brightness controlled to display an image at 20 frames per second. It has an unusual design:

Our next stop was across the River Mur, towards the Town Square. We passed the Graz Franciscan Church (Franziskanerkirche), which was built in the 1300s, attached the a monastery from 1239:

The River Mur runs through the centre of Graz, on its 464km path from the Alps to the Drava and then the Danube. We crossed over the River, near the Muinsel (Mur Island), which is an constructed island in the form of a seashell connecting the banks

Padlocks on the bridge over the Mur

We then stopped at the Hauptplatz (Town Square):

Luegghäuser - Built in 1535, façade added in 1600s

Graz Town Hall

Gargoyle

Erzherzog-Johann-Brunnen - Archduke Johann Fountain, built 1878

We also passed the Hofbäckerei Edegger-Tax - the oldest operating bakery in Graz, started in 1569:

Our next stop was an unusual one, the Doppelwendeltreppe (or Double Spiral Staircase). A double sandstone spiral staircase, built in 1499-1500 as part of the Late-Gothic design. Situated within one of the Universities, the stairs spiral up inside a small tower - joining and separating

:

Across from the staircase were two of the most impressive buildings in Graz, the Graz Cathedral and the Mausoleum of King Ferdinand II.

The Graz Cathedral (Grazer Dom) was built in 1438 and is the dedicated to Saint Giles. It was built in the Gothic style originally and was altered in the late 1500s with some Baroque changes.

The cathedral walls were originally covered with paintings, but only one survives today, the Gottesplagenbild (God's Plagues) - which details three plagues that struck Graz in 1480 - War, Locusts and the Black Death. The fresco is behind a climate controlled protective glass, which made it very hard to photo on the sunny day:

Behind the Cathedral was the very impressive Mausoleum of King Ferdinand II. The mausoleum was built in 1578 to house the tomb of Emperor Ferdinand II. It consists of a Grave Chapel, with a crypt room below, and a church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

The inside of the building is shaped like a cross - you enter the Longhouse of Saint Catherine's church - the longest arm of the cross. Straight ahead is Catherine's Altar. To the left is the Marian Altar and to the right is the Holy Sepulchre and a door leading to the Grave Chapel.

Marian Altar

Catherine's Altar

Roof of the Grave Chapel

Tomb Room below the Grave Chapel

Grave Chapel

We then continued on towards the Schlossberg Castle, passing a few interesting buildings on the way:

Neuer Thonethof

Universalmuseum Joanneum

Mariahilferkirche

Church of the Trinity

On a hill above Graz sits Schlossberg Fortress, it is 473m above sea level. The area was first fortified in the 900s and in the mid 1500s a 400m long fortress was created on the site. As with many of the castles we had seen, it was never conquered, but Napolean's forces demolished most of it after the Treaty of Schönnbrun in 1809- Only the clock tower (Uhrturm) and Bell Tower (Glockenturn) were left intact after the town paid a ransom to prevent their destruction.

We caught a funicular to the top of the hill:

Red Bull Formula 1 Car by the Funicular

At the top is a park area, that we had a small walk around, but it was getting pretty hot and, with a thunderstorm expected, the humidity made it more unpleasant. 

We took in the views and then walked around the Clock and Bell towers. The Clock Tower was unusual in that it used the longer hand for the hours and the shorter for the minutes to make reading it easier from a distance.

Top of the art museum

Clock Tower

Bell Tower

While Kris and I took the gently sloping path down, the kids took a different path. The Schlossbergrutsche, or Graz Slide, is a 64m high, 170m long slide, making it the tallest indoor slide in the world. For 6 euro they were able to slide down, taking about 40 second and reaching speeds of around 25 km/h. It was pretty expensive for what it was, but they had fun and it was better than the third alternative:

From there, we headed back to our car and then to our accommodation for the night. The place had potential - it seemed to be a garage that had been modified to an apartment, but that wasn't a problem, it had enough room and was well equipped. There was the minor inconvenience that the toilet seat and TV were broken, but we could look past that. The big problem was the heat. They supplied a small pedestal cooler, but it didn't do anything to cool the room and even when the outside temperature dropped to 22 degrees as the storm came in the room didn't get below 29 degrees.

We couldnt really open the windows too much as they had no security screens and opened onto a boxing gym carpark and open road, so it was an uncomfortable night.