Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich). It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is 0, and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about 271,000.

Geography
Linz is located in the center of Europe, lying on the Paris-Budapest west-east axis and the Malmo-Triest north-south axis. The Danube as the main tourism and transport connection that runs through the city.

Districts
Linz is divided into 9 districts and 36 statistical quarters. They are:
 * 1) Innenstadt: Altstadtviertel, Rathausviertel, Kaplanhofviertel, Neustadtviertel, Volksgartenviertel, Römerberg-Margarethen
 * 2) Waldegg: Freinberg, Froschberg, Keferfeld, Bindermichl, Spallerhof, Wankmüllerhofviertel, Andreas-Hofer-Platz-Viertel
 * 3) Lustenau: Makartviertel, Franckviertel, Hafenviertel
 * 4) St. Peter
 * 5) Kleinmünchen: Kleinmünchen, Neue Welt, Scharlinz, Bergern, Neue Heimat, Wegscheid, Schörgenhub
 * 6) Ebelsberg
 * 7) Urfahr: Alt-Urfahr, Heilham, Hartmayrsiedlung, Harbachsiedlung, Karlhofsiedlung, Auberg
 * 8) Pöstlingberg:Pöstlingberg, Bachl-Gründberg
 * 9) St. Magdalena: St. Magdalena, Katzbach, Elmberg

History


The city was founded by the Romans, who called it Lentia. The name Linz was first recorded in AD 799.

It was a provincial and local government city of the Holy Roman Empire, and an important trading point connecting several routes, on either side of the river Danube from the East to the West and Bohemia and Poland from north to the Balkans and Italy to the south. Being the city where the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III spent his last years, it was, for a short period of time, the most important city in the empire. It lost its status to Vienna and Prague after the death of the Emperor in 1493.

One important inhabitant of the city was Johannes Kepler, who spent several years of his life in the city teaching mathematics. He discovered, on 15 May 1618, the distance-cubed-over-time-squared — or 'third' — law of planetary motion. The local public university, Johannes Kepler University, is named after him.

Another famous citizen was Anton Bruckner, who spent the years between 1855 and 1868 working as a local composer and church organist in the city. The Brucknerhaus is named after him.

Adolf Hitler was born in the border town of Braunau am Inn but moved to Linz in his childhood. Hitler spent most of his youth in the Linz area, from 1898 until 1907, when he left for Vienna. The family lived first in the village of Leonding on the outskirts of town, and then on the Humboldtstrasse in Linz. After elementary education in Leonding, Hitler was enrolled in the Realschule (school) in Linz, as was the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Notorious Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann also spent his youth in Linz. To the end of his life, Hitler considered Linz to be his "home town", and envisioned extensive architectural schemes for it, wanting it to become the main cultural centre of the Third Reich. In order to make the city economically vibrant, Hitler initiated a major industrialization of Linz shortly before, and during, World War II.

In addition to an ordnance depot, Linz has a benzol (oil) plant which was bombed during the Oil Campaign on 16 October 1944. What was once the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp is 20 kilometres (12.42 miles), east of the city of Linz.

Population development
The agglomeration includes (parts of) 13 other municipalities with together 271,000 inhabitants. Linz is also part of the Linz-Wels-Steyr metropolitan area of Upper Austria, home to around one third of the state's population (460,000 people) and second-largest urban area in Austria.

Economy


Linz is one of the main economic centers of Austria. The Voestalpine AG is a large steel concern (founded as the "Hermann-Göring-Werke" during World War II), which is known for the LD- ("Linz-Donawitz") procedure for the production of steel. The former "Chemie Linz" chemical group has been split up into several companies. These companies have made Linz one of Austria's most important economic centers.

Transport
Linz serves as an important transportation hub for the region of both Upper Austria and, to a lesser degree, southern Bohemia.

The "Blue Danube" Linz Airport lies about 14 km southwest of the town centre, in the municipality of Hörsching. Direct flights include Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Vienna with additional seasonal routes added during the summer and winter months. Ryanair flies to London Stansted Airport and Air Berlin flies to Berlin-Tegel Airport.

The city also has a central station (Hauptbahnhof) on Austria's main rail axis, the West railway, linking Vienna with western Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There are also varying types of river transport on the Danube, from industrial barges to tourist cruise ships.

Local public transport is provided by trams, buses and trolleybuses, operated by Linz Linien GmbH (part of Linz AG). The Pöstlingbergbahn is a tramway which climbs a small mountain at the northwest edge of the town.

Points of interest
The main street "Landstraße" leads from the "Blumauerplatz" to "Taubenmarkt" (Pigeonmarket) near the main square. In the middle of the main square the high "Pestsäule" ("plague column", also known as "Dreifaltigkeitssäule" (Dreifaltigkeit means Holy Trinity)) was built to remember the people who died in the plague epidemics.

Near the Schloss/castle, being the former seat of Friedrich the III — the oldest Austrian church is located: Sankt/Saint Martins church. It was built during early medieval Carolingian times.

Other points of interest include:
 * St. Mary's Cathedral (Mariendom), Roman Catholic., in Gothic-Revival style
 * Pöstlingberg-Kirche: pilgrimage church on the Pöstlingberg hill
 * Brucknerhaus — the concert hall named after the composer Anton Bruckner, who was born in Ansfelden, a small town next to Linz.
 * Gugl Stadium, is home to the LASK (Linzer Athletik Sport Klub), which is claimed to be the third oldest football club in Austria.
 * The Linzer Landestheater

Culture
The city is now home to a vibrant music and arts scene that is well-funded by the city and the state of Upper Austria. Landestheater Linz. Between the Lentos Art Museum and the "Brucknerhaus", is the "Donaulände", which is also referred to as "Kulturmeile" ("culture mile"). This is a park alongside the river, which is used mainly by young people to relax and meet in summer. It is also used for the Ars Electronica Festival and the "Linz Fest". Linz has other culture institutions, such as the Posthof, which is near the harbour, and the Stadtwerkstatt, which is by the Danube river. The Pflasterspektakel, an international street art festival, takes place each year in July in and around the Landstraße and the main square. Linz was the European Capital of Culture in 2009, along with Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

Art
The recently built Lentos (2003) is a modern art gallery, presenting art from the 20th and 21st centuries. It is situated on the south banks of the river Danube. The building can be illuminated at night from the inside with blue, pink, red, and violet, due to its plastic casing.

The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a museum and research facility on the north bank of the Danube (in the Urfahr district), across the river from the Hauptplatz (main square). The AEC is a significant world center for new media arts, attracting a large gathering of technologically-oriented artists every year for the Ars Electronica festival. The AEC museum is home to one of the few public 2D CAVEs in Europe.

Music
The Brucknerhaus, a famous concert hall in Linz is named after Anton Bruckner. It is situated just some 200 meters away from the "Lentos". It is home to the "Bruckner Orchestra", and is frequently used for concerts, as well as Balls and other events.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 36 (1783) in Linz for a concert to be given there, and the work is known today as the Linz Symphony. The first version of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C minor is known as the Linz version.

Colleges and universities

 * The Johannes Kepler University is situated in the north-east of Linz, and hosts law, business, social sciences, engineering, and science faculties; about 13416 students (October 2007) are enrolled. A spin-off of the university, as well as a Fachhochschule for various computer-related studies, (polytechnic) is located 20 mi north of Linz in the small town of Hagenberg im Mühlkreis. Linz also hosts three other universities:
 * University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz, public, for arts and industrial design (approx. 800 students)
 * Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance (private) for music (approx. 800 students)
 * Catholic-Theological Private University Linz (private) for Catholic theology (approx. 400 students), which has been a Papal faculty since 1978.

Amongst the many "Gymnasien" (high schools) in Linz, is Linz International School Auhof (LISA), which is one of four IB (International Baccalaureate) schools in Austria, and uses English as main language for instruction.

Sports
The EHC Black Wings Linz play professional ice hockey in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga.

Generali Ladies Linz is annual WTA Tour tennis tournament held in city.

Born in Linz

 * Mary Anne of Austria (1683–1754), Queen consort of Portugal
 * Alois Riegl (1858–1905) art historian
 * Hermann Bahr (1863–1934) writer, playwright, director, and critic
 * Frederic "Fritz" Austerlitz (1868) father of Fred Astaire
 * Richard Tauber (1891–1948) tenor
 * Valie Export (born 1940) artist
 * Waltraut Cooper (born 1937) artist, Pioneer of Digital Art
 * Herwig van Staa (born 1942) former governor of Tyrol
 * Fritz Eckhardt (1907–1995) actor, director, and writer
 * Frank Elstner (born 1942) presenter on German television
 * Shlomo Sand (born 1946) Professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of the controversial book The Invention of the Jewish People
 * Fritz von Thurn und Taxis (born 1950) Austrian sportscaster
 * Richard Link (born 1951) Canadian space scientist
 * Anton Koschany (born 1953) news producer
 * Elisabeth Theurer (born 1956) horse rider
 * Franz Welser-Möst (born 1960) music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera
 * Franz Schumann (born 1960) professional wrestler
 * Marcus Füreder (born 1974) producer, DJ
 * Vera Lischka (born 1977) breaststroke swimmer and politician
 * Birgit Minichmayr (born 1977) actress
 * Thomas Marban (born 1979) entrepreneur
 * Sybille Bammer (born 1980) tennis player
 * Marco Krainer (born 1981) Austrian specialty and TV chef with connections to the United States
 * Christina Stürmer (born 1982) Austrian pop/rock singer

Living in Linz:
 * Doug Hammond (born in Tampa, Florida, 1942) musician.
 * Klaus von Pervulesko (born in Innsbruck, 1945) actor.
 * Andrew Edge (born in Leeds, England, 1956) musician.

Twin towns — Sister cities
Linz is twinned with: