Things to do in Graz

Landmark · Dead centre, above the old town

A wooded crag rising straight out of the city, topped by the clock tower that survived when Napoleon's troops demolished the fortress around it.

Local tip: There is a funicular and a lift, and there are also 260 steps from Schlossbergplatz — the steps are free and take eight minutes. Inside the hill is a network of wartime tunnels now used as a passage and an events space, which most visitors never notice.

Culture · Lend, west bank of the Mur

The blue biomorphic 'friendly alien' contemporary art museum, and a floating steel island in the river a few hundred metres upstream.

Local tip: Both were built for the 2003 European Capital of Culture year and both are still working buildings rather than monuments — the Murinsel has a café in it and the Kunsthaus's exhibition programme is genuinely worth a membership if you are here more than a year.

Neighborhood · West of the Mur

The two districts across the river — historically the poorer, most immigrant and most interesting part of Graz, now also the one with the bars.

Local tip: Lendplatz market on a Saturday morning is the best food shopping in the city and half the price of the old-town delis. The area changes character street by street: Mariahilferstraße is bars and galleries, three streets west is ordinary working Graz.

Landmark · Western edge, tram 1

A Baroque palace built as a calendar in stone — 365 windows, 31 rooms per floor, 24 state rooms — with a walled park full of peacocks.

Local tip: The park costs almost nothing and is where locals actually go; the state rooms are guided-tour only and worth doing once. It is part of the same UNESCO World Heritage listing as the old town, which is unusual for a site four kilometres outside it.

Nature · 45–60 minutes south by car

Ridge roads through steep vineyards along the Slovenian border, with Buschenschank taverns at the top of most of them.

Local tip: This is the reason people accept a job in Graz. Sauvignon Blanc and Welschriesling from these hills are Austria's best, the Klapotetz windmills are real working bird-scarers rather than decoration, and a Buschenschank is legally only allowed to serve its own wine and cold food — which is why the food is so good.

Culture · Inside the Schlossberg

Six kilometres of tunnels dug as air-raid shelters in 1943, part of which is now a concert hall inside the rock.

Local tip: You can walk the main gallery straight through the hill as a free public passage between Schlossbergplatz and Karmeliterplatz, which almost nobody who has not been told does. The Dom im Berg hosts club nights and concerts in a space that is unheated, enormous and acoustically strange.