City in Austria
5 things to see3 of them free
Linz is Austria’s underrated cultural city on the Danube, with a surprisingly affordable food scene compared to Vienna or Salzburg. The handsome Hauptplatz and the Danube riverbank are free to wander, and the Pöstlingberg hill offers the best panorama of the city. Its festivals, including Ars Electronica each September, bring free public events to the streets, and frequent fast trains make it an easy, cheaper stop between Vienna and Salzburg.
What to see
3 of these cost nothing at all.
The Ars Electronica Center calls itself the Museum of the Future, which is accurate enough: it focuses on the intersection of art, technology, and society through hands-on exhibits, including the Deep Space 8K projection room where high-resolution imagery covers floor and walls simultaneously.
One of the largest medieval market squares in Austria. The baroque Trinity Column (Dreifaltigkeitssaeule) at the center is a plague column from 1723. The surrounding facades mix Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque. The Old Cathedral, the Alte Rathaus, and multiple cafe terraces line the square. The tram hub and starting point for exploring the Altstadt.
A modern art museum on the Danube promenade, housed in a glass building that glows in changing colors at night. The collection includes Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, and a strong post-war Austrian section. The museum terrace overlooking the Danube is one of Linz's best public spaces. Named after the Celtic settlement that preceded Roman Lentia.
Linz built the largest church in Austria without any Habsburg backing, purely through decades of public fundraising starting in 1862. The Mariendom, or New Cathedral, is Neo-Gothic, meaning it is a 19th-century revival of the medieval Gothic style characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and an emphasis on height.
The Poestlingberg rises 539 meters above Linz on the north bank of the Danube, with the twin-towered pilgrimage church visible from the city below as a constant reference point. The Poestlingbergbahn, running since 1898, is one of the steepest adhesion (non-rack) railways in the world, climbing 255 meters in under 3 kilometers.
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