Schloßberg (meaning, Castle Hill) is Graz’s most prominent feature, literally. Long time ago, people settled next to a ford across the Mur river, at one of the entrances into the Alps from the vast Hungarian plains. These early Grazers used the nearby steep rocky hill as their evacuation plan in case of flood or invasion. Eventually, they built a fortress up there. Actually, the very name Graz (pronounced Gruts) comes from the Slavic word gradeć (pronounced gruddets), meaning “a little fortress”. Since then, this area has changed a lot of owners, from Romans, to Slavs, to Bavarians, to Hungarians, to the Habsburgs. In fact, Graz at one point was one of three official Habsburg headquarters (along with Vienna and Innsbruck), and even the capital of the whole Austria for a short time, when Emperor Frederick III flew to Graz in 1487, after the Hungarians kicked him out of Vienna.
As you can imagine, that little fortress on the hill turned out to be pretty handy during these tumultuous times, and, most probably, it was constantly being reinforced and rebuilt. The fortress has never been conquered or destroyed as a result of a siege. That’s why it is listed in “Guinness Book of Records” as “the strongest fortress of all time”. Which is sort of facetious, considering the fortress was eventually razed to the ground. After the French defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Graz in 1809 (2 weeks before much more significant and well-known Battle of Wagram), the French made Grazers to demolish Schlossberg fortifications completely, just out of spite, since even the glorified Napoleonic troops weren’t able to seize the little fortress on the hilltop. So, now just a few structures from that fortress still stand, among them the Clocktower (Uhrturm) and the Bell tower (Glockenturm), and even that only because citizens of Graz paid the French a ransom (read – the bride) of 2,987 guilders and 11 kreuzers, today’s equivalent of 90,000 euros. Thank God for corruption!
Here I, probably, need to explain that “ss vs. ß” thing. The weird ß letter is called Eszett (es-tset) or “sharp s”, and it’s a unique German letter, which represents “ss”, and sounds exactly like “s”. In 1996, the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) decided to get rid of this nonsense (along with other changes in the spelling). So, now they write, for instance, strasse instead of straße , but they kept ß in the names of places and historical things. Like Schloßberg. But I, with the powers vested in me by the full and unlimited ownership of this website, will be mostly using “ss” instead of ß. Just because I don’t have ß on my keyboard.
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As you can see, this rocky hill is indeed quite steep, and with its 123-m height, it′s really looming over the nearby buildings.From this angle, it is apparent that whoever owned Schlossberg, owned the whole city below.
The Clocktower (Uhrturm) is the most prominent feature of the hill.Very menacing, no?Like Big Ben in London and Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Clocktower has become the symbol of Graz, due to its unique shape and the fact that it can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city: ... ⇨⇨ ... from the Mur river (in this case, from Archduke Johann bridge), ... ⇨⇨ ... or from the city′s Main square (Hauptplatz), ... ⇨⇨ ... or from the narrow lanes of the old town (in this case, one of the alleys off Sackstrasse). But the best view you get (short from climbing up to the tower itself) is from the place aptly named Schlossberg square (Schlossbergplatz). [These 2 pictures were taken from almost the same spot with a 5-year difference - 2017 vs. 2022].Schlossbergplatz with Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche) to the left. Note, the church is completely white. (We′ll talk more about this later).Schlossbergplatz is the best place to climb Schlossberg from. It has the purposely built stairs called der Schlossbergsteig ("the Schlossberg climb") on the side of the hill. There is also a funicular, but where is fun in that... [Ok, I have a bit of a warning here. A real Austrian has never seen a natural elevation which they haven′t itched to climb. So if you are not of the same disposition, and you find yourself in front of a mountain in company with an Austrian, run for the hills.]But, with all honesty, Schlossbergsteig is fine. You should climb it. First, it′s easy - a nicely laid out stairs all the way, and then you get glimpses of city roofs through the trees. When it′s a snowy winter, like the one in 1995, it gets pretty darn Christmassy.Finally, you′re on the battlements and can examine the tower closely. It doesn′t look the part, but it′s pretty old - the first mention of a tower on Schlossberg is from 1265. It obviously didn′t look that way back then, it′s been rebuilt and renovated many times since, but still... The unique shape of the tower comes from the wooden walkway that goes around above the dials, and from which fire-watchers would watch for fires in the city. And when they saw one, they would ring one of the three bells of the tower - die Feuerglocke, the Fire Bell. The two other bells are die Stundenglocke (the Hour bell, the oldest of the three, installed in 1382), rung every hour on the hour, obviously, and die Armensünderglocke (the Poor Sinner′s bell). This one was rung during executions.The fire-watching was the original purpose of the tower, before the clock was installed in 1569. It had 3 dials back then, because practically no one lived north of Schlossberg, so there was no point to show time that way. The 4th dial was added 150 years later, when the growing city had surrounded Schlossberg on all sides.The dials are 5 m in diameter, with 4m-long hands. Speaking of the hands. In 1712, when they added the new dial, they also modernized the clock, which was now accurate enough to show minutes. So, the second hand was added to the previously single hand on each dial. But if you think, it was the long hand that was added, you will be wrong. ⇨⇨ The tower is 123 m high above the city (plus 28 m of the height of the tower itself), and it′s very hard to see the short hand from that distance. So it was always the long hand that showed hours. And the short hand is the minute hand. Its own small dial shows quarter-hours. So, the time on this picture is 3:25, not 5:17. It′s a bit confusing without practice.The other interesting features of the Clock tower are 3 plaques, depicting various coats of arms. This one is the coat of arms of Styria, the Austrian state of which Graz is the capital. (Austria is a federation, consisting of 9 federal states). The central figure is the "Styrian Panther" with horns, breathing fire. The shield is supposed to be crowned with the ducal hat of Styria (this is from the times when Styria was a Duchy). The actual ducal hat in the History Museum in Graz looks nothing like this crown, but, I guess, it′s the artistic liberty.This one is the coat of arms of Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria Ferdinand I (1503 – 1564). I don′t know why he is honoured here with his coat of arms. He didn′t do anything special for Graz, except that he died. After his death, his three sons split the Habsburgs′ domains between them, and the youngest son Charles, becoming the Duke of Styria among other things, made Graz one of three principal Habsburg capitals.This is the coat of arms of Holy Roman Empress and Archduchess of Austria Maria Teresa (1717 – 1780). Again, I am personally not aware of her connections with Graz, except that she decreed that all deaths in the city hospital must be followed by an autopsy. Make of it what you will. A short walk from the Clock tower, there is one of a few remaining bastions of the former fortress, now occupied by Schlossberg Museum. Where I am standing, but out of the frame here, there is the Turkish fountain (der Türkenbrunnen), a well that reaches 94 m deep to the groundwater of the Mur - one of the castle′s main supplies of water during sieges.This is from inside of the Schlossberg Museum. A little taste of how, back in the day, the fortress could really command the whole city below.A little further still is a vast open park where the inner wards of the castle used to be before the demolition. The tower in the back is the Bell tower (der Glockenturm), one of the two major buildings of the fortress still standing, along with the Clock tower. In the middle of that green space is the opening of the Great Cistern (die große Zisterne), a huge underground water reservoir, one of the largest of this type in the world. 5 well shafts, 3.5 m in diameter and 16 m deep, are arranged in a circle. They collected rain water from the roofs of the surrounding buildings, with the total capacity of 900,000 liters. The cistern, built in 1544-1547, is still functioning and now serves as the water reserve for fire-fighters. The beautiful wrought iron canopy for the reservoir opening was installed in 1897.The Bell tower itself is 34 m high, and carries the third largest bell in Styria, called “Liesl” (a diminutive for Elizabeth). Little Lizzie weighs 5 ton. The bell is still being rung 3 times daily with 101 strikes. The legend has it, this is because the bell was cast from 101 recovered Turkish cannonballs. (Graz sits on the Eastern border of the Habsburgs′ lands, and it had to fend off numerous Ottoman attacks over the years). The legend is obviously fiction, since Liesl, like all bells, is made of bronze and cannonballs are made of iron. Much more interesting feature of the Bell tower, though, is this coat of arms of Graz. It looks a lot like the coat of arms of Styria, which we saw earlier, with 2 important distinctions - the "Styrian Panther" here has a small (golden) crown on its head, and - the flames are coming not only from the mouth, but "from all body openings", as heraldry sources prudishly put it. If you look closely, you will see what they mean. And this is the real coat of arms of Graz, no joke. Google it. The modern depictions are not so anatomically correct, granted, but the flames are still there, coming out of all those orifices. Including ears.But snickering at lewd plaques is not the reason to climb all the way up here. This is the reason to climb Schlossberg - the magnificent views of the city and the whole Mur valley. See those mountains in the back? It′s the eastern edge of the Alps, which stretch for 12,000 km from here to the Mediterranean coast. This is the strategic importance of Graz - it locks one of the very few entrances into the Alps from the vast eastern plains. The previous picture is looking north, and as you saw, the city over there is pretty modern. The historic core of Graz lies on the other side of Schlossberg - to the south. Let′s take a closer look at what we see in this panorama, starting from the right.The distinct 2-tower church is Mariahilferkirche, Church of Mary the Helper, one of the major Graz churches. It′s the focal point of the western part of the city, across the river from die Innere Stadt, the Inner city.The weird-looking alien blob thing with tentacle stumps farther down the river is das Kunsthaus - the Arts Museum, built in 2003, when Graz was the European Capital of Culture. Not the most popular edifice among the Grazers, I can tell you that. And here is where the historicity of those poor-quality grainy pictures from 1995 comes in play. See? The picture is taken from the same spot as the 2 previous ones, and there is no Kunsthaus! It′s supposed to be where that building with the smooth pink side is.Another pic of the same area from 1995. The church in the upper left corner is Barmherzigenkirche (Church of Mercy). Moving along to the left. This is Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church), another important church in Graz, this time on the east (left) bank of the river. Where the most of the cool stuff is. And to the right from Franziskanerkirche is Hauptplatz, Main Square. The big building taking one whole side of the square is das Rathaus, the City Hall. [These pictures were taken from the exact same spot, in 2004 and 2017]. A little bit closer look in 2017, ... ⇨ ⇨ ... and even closer in 2004.Moving even further to the left, we come to Domkirche zum Heiligen Ägydius (Cathedral of Saint Giles). It′s that triangular church with a small green cupola. Behind it, the lower building with a green dome, is Mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II. And to the right, the big building with the brown convex roof is the Graz Opera. The view of the same Cathedral, but 22 years before. The massive roof to the left is die Grazer Burg, the Graz Castle, the seat of power in Styria since 1400s. Back then it was where the Dukes (and the occasional Emperors) lived, and now it′s the office of the Governor. And finally, a closer view of the Cathedral, and Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Church of the Sacred Heart) behind. This is the parish church of my friend′s family in Graz, and this is where I attended Christmas Mass in 1995. Press ESC to exit
