Alien encounter
Sometimes referred to as Austria’s “third city” after Vienna and Salzburg (it is actually the second by population after the capital), Graz seems comfortably understated. Both a UNESCO City of Design and a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its historic city centre (only Berlin can also boast both titles), it has just the right number of attractions to fill a few delightful days at a pleasant place.
Graz cathedral sits amid red-tiled roofs
The bustling Hauptplatz (Main Square) is fringed by a handsome melange of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Habsburg dynasty buildings, while the Rathaus, or Town Hall, came later, but blends in beautifully. With over 50 courtyards with arcades (the Landhaus Courtyard, where the regional parliament convenes in the assembly hall, is particularly impressive), if you don’t get lost, you’re not entering into the spirit of things.
Graz has over 50 courtyards with arcades
With frescos by the Baroque painter Johann Mayer, the Herzoghof building, known as the ‘painted house’, features Greek and Roman gods and heroes. The entire facade is covered, making it unique in Austria. The nearby Lueghaus, now home to a Svarovski store, is also ornately painted.
A portion of the ‘painted house’
Standing by the fast-flowing River Mur, the city’s premier art venue is the Kunsthaus (‘Kunst’ is German for art), built for Graz’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2003. Its reptilian appearance amid the surrounding red-tiled roofs quickly made it the city’s main landmark, and it soon won over sceptical locals, to be nicknamed the “friendly alien”.
The “friendly alien”
Designed by the British architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, the building has a ‘skin’ formed by over 1,000 blue acrylic glass panels, puctuated by north-facing nozzles on the roof to protect the artworks inside from damaging southern sunlight. Not all of the nozzles are directed towards the north. One of them peers to the east, directly to the Clock Tower on the Schlossberg (Castle Hill), thus linking the city’s newest landmark with one of its oldest. At night, the ‘skin’ of the building illuminates to treat passersby to a changing light display.
Kunsthaus interior
Once inside, there is a sense of anticipation as the travelator ascends to the exhibition floor to deposit visitors in the belly of the beast. With no permanent collection of its own, the Kunsthaus presents changing exhibitions of art from the 1980s onward as well as photography in the Camera Austria section.
At night, the ‘skin’ of the Kunsthaus treats passersby to a changing light display
The adjacent cafe, the Iron House, was built in 1848 by the Graz architect Josef Benedict Withalm, originally as a shopping centre, and is a fine example of ‘skeleton’ architecture.
The Iron House cafe is connected to the Kunsthaus by a 40 metre-long viewing platform dubbed the “needle”
Named for Archduke Johann (1792-1859), who was responsible for numerous initiatives to improve the quality of life in Graz (his statue lords it over the Hauptplatz), the Johanneum Quarter cultural centre is the site of Austria’s second largest and oldest museum.
In the Johanneum Quarter, escalators lead down through ‘sinkholes’ into the exhibition centre
The Neue Galerie collection comprises over 70,000 works by Austrian and international artists from the 1800 to the present. Only Vienna has larger collections. A permanent highlights exhibition under the title Selection, partially based on public feedback, combines contemporary and historical works.
Contemporary and historical works appear alongside each other in the Neue Galerie
Within the Neue Galerie is the Bruseum, which holds the most extensive collection of work by Günter Brus (1938-2024). A pioneer of body art, which included self-mutilation, Brus was a leading member of the 1960s and ‘70s art movement Wiener Aktionismus (Vienna Actionism). He renounced social norms and all other artistic materials and declared his body his only medium. The museum has hilarious film footage from Vienna Walk (1965), featuring Brus bemusing locals by strolling through the Austrian capital dressed in his ‘self-painting’ garb of white suit with black lines, symbolising both a wound and the inner conflict in post-war Austrian society.
In ‘Self-Painting’ by Günter Brus, painter and painting become one
Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Baroque Schloss Eggenberg (Eggenberg Palace) was commissioned in 1625 by Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, a minor patrician’s son from Graz, who through a talent for seizing opportunities ultimately became imperial governor. Reacting to the chaos of the 16th century going on around him, the Prince created an example of harmonious architecture, with four towers for the seasons, 12 gates for the months and 365 windows for the days in the year.
Schloss Eggenberg
As well as the palace’s two dozen luxuriously appointed state rooms, art-lovers will be delighted by a wonderful collection of pre-1800 art in the Alte Galerie, which spans the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque. There is an impressive display of religious art, while another highlight is the Dutch section with classic winter landscapes, domestic scenes and still lifes. Look out for Jan Brueghel’s The Triumph of Death, David Teniers’ Peasants in a Tavern, Lucas Cranach’s The Judgement of Paris and Jan Steen’s Love Scene.
The Planetary Room in Schloss Eggenberg
There is also an excellent section on the revolutionary 15th century mass medium of prints, as the first paper mills provided the material for cheap and rapid production and wide distribution, making images by artists such as Dürer, Raphael and Rubens widely available to ordinary people.
The Alte Galerie in Schloss Eggenberg
Standing on the edge of the City Park, the Halle fuer Kunst occupies a classic white Modernist building, purpose-built as an art gallery in 1952. Comprising a spacious ground floor gallery and several interconnected spaces downstairs, it presents themed exhibitions by Austrian and international artists, sometimes in cooperation with other institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and the Hepworth Wakefield.
Installation shot from Argentinian artist Diego Bianchi’s exhibition Errores Irreales in the Halle fuer Kunst
Past shows have featured the Argentinian artist Diego Bianchi’s sculptural installations inspired by the human body, British artist Louise Giovanelli’s large scale, meditative paintings and a multi-artist show exploring Surrealism and its after-effects.
Housed in the Minorite monastery, Kultum traces the influence of religion on contemporary art, with paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations asking profound questions about the nature of faith.
They include: Hermann Glettler’s wall installation Crossfit, a mesh of plastic crucified Christs which were once mounted on coffin lids and removed before cremation; Werner Reiterer’s Draft for an Altar, consisting of a table, a discarded halo, an old Nokia phone (which rings when you enter the room) and a hand-written note, saying: ‘I’ll be back in five minutes. GOD’. (Why did he leave? Where has he gone? Will he come back? Who is calling?); and Julia Bornefeld’s The Burning Supper, recalling Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, with 12 men and one woman sitting behind a burning table, seemingly unaware of the flames and continuing to debate. (Is religion being consumed by the fire?)
Julia Bornefeld, ‘The Burning Supper’
Linked to both river banks by footbridges, the glass-encased Mur Island has a cafe-bar and small ampitheatre. Designed by the New York artist/architect Vito Acconci for Graz’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2003, it was meant to be temporary, but has become a permanent feature.
Mur Island
In the Maria-Stromberger-Gasse, the street named for the Austrian nurse who aided inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp, the white exterior walls of the 17th century St Andrew’s Church are stencilled with lettering in various typefaces. Both a spiritual and cultural centre, this is where Baroque meets contemporary art.
Sermons are preached from an altar of mosaiced mirror in the St Andrews Church
Since 1999, the project Andrä Art has invited artists from all over the world to add site-specific works without destroying the sacred character of the church. These include a mirrored altar and pillar, Pop Art stained glass windows, and graffiti-like scrawls in altar niches. Try to visit in the afternoon, when the ensemble glows atmospherically in the diffused light.
In the priests’ seminary courtyard (the largest in Graz), Manfred Erjautz’s marble sculpture Searching into permanence depicts a snowman staring into an artificial puddle, a mute witness of the changes happening around him year-round.
Manfred Erjautz, ‘Searching into permanence’
The Zaha Hadid-designed Argos Building combines apartments, offices and retail space. The upper floors, with their protruding, funnel-shaped windows, seem to float above the transparent facade of the base. Argos demonstrates how contemporary architecture can be integrated into the city without destroying its character.
Architect Zaha Hadid’s Argos Building blends modern with traditional
About ten kilometres outside Graz, the Austrian Sculpture Park has 80 sculptures by Austrian and international artists, including Erwin Wurms, Yoko Ono and Fritz Wotruba.
Peter Weibel’s ‘The earth as a suitcase’ in the Austrian Sculpture Park
FURTHER INFO graztourismus.at, austria.info