Graz - City of Austria

Graz with a population of around 290,000 as of 2008is the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna and the capital of the federal state of Styria.

Graz has a long tradition as a student city: its six universities have over 44,000 students. Graz's "Old Town" is one of the best-preserved city centers in Central Europe. In 1999, it was added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. Graz was sole Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003.

Due to its position south east of the Alps, Graz is shielded from the prevailing westerly winds that bring weather fronts in from the North Atlantic to north western and central Europe. Due to this factor the weather in Graz is Mediterranean influenced. Graz therefore has more hours of sunshine per year than Vienna or Salzburg and also less wind or rain. Graz lies in a basin that only opens to the south, causing the climate to be warmer than would be expected at that latitude. Plants are found in Graz that normally grow much further south. However, this milder, less windy climate is detrimental to the air quality in Graz as it makes the city prone to smog in winter. The exhaust fumes of the around 120,000 cars driven into Graz every weekday by people living in the surrounding areas, together with the car journeys made by the inhabitants of Graz itself, are the most significant source of air pollution.

The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern city of Graz dates back to the Copper Age. However, there is no historical continuity of a settlement before the Middle Ages.

In the last few years some groundbreakingly modern new public buildings have been erected in the city. The most famous of these include the Kunsthaus (house of modern art) designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, a museum constructed right next to the river Mur, and the "Murinsel" (island in the Mur), an island made of steel, situated in the river. It was designed by the American architect Vito Acconci and contains a café, an open-air theatre and a playground.

The most important museums in Graz are:

Alte Galerie paintings and sculptures from the Romanesque to the end of the Baroque period, coin museum and regular exhibitions.
Neue Galerie visual arts from the 19th and 20th century.
Natural History Museum exhibition of botany, mineralogy and zoology.
Stadtmuseum Graz city museum.
Grazer Kunsthaus museum of contemporary art.
Camera Austria museum of contemporary photography.
Landeszeughaus medieval armory comprising of 32,000 pieces of armour and weaponry, largest of its kind in the world.
Volkskundemuseum museum of folklore.
Diözesanmuseum museum of the Roman Catholic church.
Künstlerhaus museum of contemporary visual arts.
Literaturhaus museum of contemporary German literature.
Museum der Wahrnehmung museum of the senses, samadhi bath.
Kindermuseum Frida&Fred museum for children.
Tramwaymuseum 40 historic trams, the oldest dating from 1873.
Kriminalmuseum museum of criminology.
Luftfahrtmuseum (Graz airport) aviation museum.
Hanns Schell Collection key and lock museum, largest of its kind in the world.