What are the most beautiful places in Styria?

On our list, Erzberg (Styrian Erzberg) ranks first, followed by Riegersburg Castle and Kunsthaus Graz.

Why is Grüner See flooded in spring?

Meltwater from the snow of the surrounding Hochschwab mountains raises the lake by several metres in late spring, submerging the park around it. As the melt ends, the water level drops and the meadow reappears.

The Erzberg near Eisenerz is a mountain of iron ore that has been mined for many centuries. Open-pit mining has cut its slopes into giant terraced steps that make it look like a stepped pyramid.

How big is the library of Admont Abbey?

Admont Abbey's library is the largest monastic library in the world. Its late Baroque hall, completed in the 1770s, combines ceiling frescoes, sculptures and tall bookcases in white and gold.

What kinds of places are there to see in Styria?

In our collection, the places in Styria are most often lakes (1), castles (1), mines (1) and libraries (1).

The 5 Most Beautiful Places in Styria

Styria is known as the green heart of Austria: more than half of it is forest, rising from the vineyards and extinct volcanoes of the southeast to the limestone ranges of the Northern Alps. Its wealth came from iron, mined here for many centuries and worked along its rivers, and from Graz, a university and trading city whose old town and later additions show how Styrian culture has kept renewing itself.

The Erzberg is the clearest image of that iron history, a whole mountain cut into giant terraced steps by open-pit mining, like a red stepped pyramid above the town of Eisenerz. In Admont, the Benedictine abbey holds one of the largest monastic libraries in the world, a late Baroque hall in white and gold with ceiling frescoes and tall cases of books lit by many windows.

Riegersburg Castle crowns a sheer basalt crag in the volcanic landscape of southeastern Styria, a fortress that was never taken by force. In Graz, the Kunsthaus breaks into the old roofscape as a blue, bulging skin with nozzle-like skylights, an art museum nicknamed the friendly alien. Grüner See, at the foot of the Hochschwab massif, is a lake that changes with the seasons: in spring, snowmelt raises its clear green water over the surrounding meadow, paths and benches, which then lie underwater until the level falls again in summer.