📍 8 stops · ⏱ ~8.5 h · 🎟 from €10
A classic Linz day that starts with the city's striking modern art museum on the Danube, winds through the grand Baroque Hauptplatz, and then climbs the historic mountain railway to the pilgrimage basilica and fairytale grotto atop Pöstlingberg — a first visit that captures the city's essential split between river-level culture and hillside charm.
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The sits right on the south bank of the Danube, a long low rectangle of glass and concrete that glows blue at night. By day the river-facing terrace catches the morning light, and from the upper floors you look across the water to the Urfahr district on the opposite bank — the city's more relaxed, residential side. The building was designed by Zurich architects Weber & Hofer and opened in 2003, part of Linz's push to reinvent its waterfront as a cultural strip after decades of industrial use. Inside, the collection runs from the 19th century through to the present, with particularly strong holdings in Austrian modernism — Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka all appear — alongside rotating contemporary shows. The ground-floor café spills onto the terrace in summer and is a favourite spot for locals to linger over a coffee with the river view, but we will save that for another day and press on into the old town.
The Lentos is Linz's flagship art museum, housed in a striking glass-and-concrete building that cantilevers over the Danube. Its permanent collection traces modern and contemporary art from the 19th century onward, with a notable concentration of Austrian expressionists — Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka — alongside international works. Temporary exhibitions on the upper floors bring in major travelling shows, so there is almost always something new beyond the core collection. The museum's riverside terrace is one of the best places in the city to stand and watch the Danube slide past, with the Pöstlingberg hill visible in the distance as a preview of the day's final chapter.
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz · Book onlineGetYourGuide Things to do nearby
Linz: Echoes of Culture Audio Tour
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The museum café opens onto a wide terrace directly over the water — even if you do not stop for a drink, walk out for a moment before leaving. From the far end you can see the pilgrimage church on its hilltop across the river, which is exactly where this day ends.
Linz's Hauptplatz is vast — 13,200 square metres of open space laid out in the 13th century and ringed by pastel-coloured Baroque and Rococo façades. At its centre stands the , a 20-metre marble plague monument erected in 1723 after the city survived a wave of epidemics and war. The Old Town Hall on the eastern side still bears its original 16th-century core beneath later additions, and the square has been the city's market and gathering place for over 700 years. On a Saturday morning, the Curiosity Flea Market fills parts of the square with stalls of antiques, oddities, and bric-a-brac — a local weekend ritual that brings a different energy to the grand space.
The Hauptplatz is the civic heart of Linz, a sprawling medieval square framed by colourful Baroque buildings with ornate gables and pastel stucco façades. The at its centre is a masterpiece of Baroque sculpture, carved from white marble and towering over the cobblestones. On Saturdays the square hosts a long-running flea market where vendors sell everything from vintage postcards to antique furniture, giving the grand space a lived-in, local feel. Stand in the middle and look around — the square has barely changed its footprint since the 13th century, and the same tram lines that brought people here a hundred years ago still rattle past on the eastern edge.
The is one of the steepest adhesion railways in Europe, climbing 255 metres in just over four kilometres from the Hauptplatz to the summit of Pöstlingberg. Opened in 1898, the little red trams have been carrying Linzers up their local mountain for over a century, and the ride itself is the attraction — the gradient tilts sharply as you leave the old town, and the city spreads out below in a widening panorama of rooftops, the Danube, and the industrial bridges downstream. The tram cars are original in design, with wooden benches and large windows, and the final approach to the summit station runs through a tunnel of trees before bursting out onto the open hilltop.
Pöstlingbergbahn (Mountain Rail… · TicketsGetYourGuideA self-guided audio walk through Linz's old town, starting from the Hauptplatz and winding through the narrow lanes and historic courtyards that most visitors miss. The tour covers the key landmarks — the , the , the Bischofshof — and fills in the stories behind the Baroque façades: who built them, why the square is so large, and how the city evolved from a medieval trading post to a cultural capital. You walk at your own pace, pausing where you like, and the narration is rich in the kind of architectural and historical detail that brings the old stones to life. The tour is booked online and downloaded to your phone, so you can start whenever you reach the square.
Linz: Historic Old Town Audio T… · Audio guidewegotrip.tp.stfrom €10The audio tour works offline once downloaded, but the old town's narrow lanes can make a mobile signal patchy — pull the tour down on the Hauptplatz before you start walking, and you will have the map and narration ready as you duck into the quieter courtyards.
The — also called the — is Austria's largest church, a neo-Gothic giant built of yellow sandstone that can hold 20,000 people. Construction began in 1862 and was completed in 1924, and the sheer scale is the first thing that hits you: the tower rises 135 metres, and the interior is a soaring forest of ribbed vaults and pointed arches. The stained-glass windows are particularly fine, especially the large rose window above the main portal, which throws coloured light across the nave in the afternoon. A tower ascent — 341 steps — rewards with a panoramic view over the city and the Danube valley, and on a clear day the Alps are visible on the southern horizon.
The Botanical Garden spreads across 4.2 hectares on the southern edge of the city centre, with 31 thematic sectors and five glasshouses that range from arid cactus collections to humid tropical jungles. The giant water lily house is the star — pads can reach two metres across and float on a heated pool like green platters. Outside, the alpine garden climbs a small slope with specimens from the surrounding Austrian mountains, and the rose garden peaks in June with hundreds of varieties in bloom. It is a quiet, scholarly kind of garden rather than a manicured park — university botanists use it for research — and the benches tucked into the rhododendron grove are a good place to sit for a while before the final climb up Pöstlingberg.
rises 539 metres above the Danube and has been Linz's weekend escape for generations. The summit is crowned by the — the pilgrimage basilica of — a twin-towered Baroque church visible from almost anywhere in the city. Around it cluster a few cafés, a small museum, and the , a century-old fairytale ride built into the hill. The real draw, though, is the view: from the terrace in front of the basilica, the whole city lies spread below, the Danube a silver ribbon winding east toward the distant Alps. Late afternoon is the best time — the light softens, the shadows lengthen, and the city below begins to sparkle.
The is the spiritual anchor of Pöstlingberg, a Baroque pilgrimage church built in the 1740s with twin onion-domed towers that dominate the skyline. Inside, the high altar is a riot of gold leaf and marble, and the carved wooden Madonna draws pilgrims from across . The real moment, though, is outside: the terrace in front of the church offers the definitive Linz panorama — the Danube curling through the city, the industrial bridges and the visible as a glass sliver on the riverbank, and on clear days the chain of the Eastern Alps rising on the horizon. Walk the short loop path behind the basilica for a quieter angle over the northern forests, then circle back to the main square for the Grottenbahn.
The is a wonderfully strange Linz institution — a miniature fairytale railway built into the hill beneath the basilica, opened in 1906 and barely changed since. You board a tiny dragon-shaped train that trundles through a dimly lit tunnel past dioramas of dwarves, gnomes, and scenes from , all hand-painted and slightly eerie in the best way. It is aimed at children but has become a cult favourite with adults for its nostalgic, slightly surreal atmosphere — a 104-year-old piece of folk art that feels like stepping into a Victorian picture book. The ride lasts about 15 minutes, and afterwards you can wander the attached dwarf garden and the small exhibition on the railway's history before catching the tram back down to the city.
The is one of those rare attractions that is genuinely charming rather than kitschy — go in with an open mind and let the hand-painted dioramas work their strange magic. The last ride is usually around an hour before the tram's final descent, so check the timetable at the summit station when you arrive.
The runs until early evening — the last tram down varies by season but in summer it typically departs around 20:00. The descent in fading light is as beautiful as the climb: the city lights come on one by one, and the Danube catches the last colour of the sky. Pulling up the tram timetable on your phone from the summit terrace saves you from guessing and lets you linger at the viewpoint until the very last moment.
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