Clock tower
Reversed hands.
Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen — CC BY 4.0 · Isiwal — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anna Saini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen — CC BY 4.0 · Anna Saini — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Schlossberg, or «Castle Hill», is a wooded hill in the centre of Graz, Austria's second city and the capital of Styria, about 145 km southwest of Vienna in a straight line. It rises to 473 metres above sea level and is now a public park looking out over the city, whose historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hill was fortified by the 10th century at the latest, and in the mid-16th century architects from northern Italy built a fortress 400 metres long. Most of it was pulled down in 1809, but the Uhrturm clock tower and the bell tower were spared after the people of Graz paid a ransom to save them. In 1839 Ludwig von Welden turned what remained into a park. The white clock tower with its dark wooden roof and four clock faces is the symbol of Graz. Its hands are reversed: the large hand shows the hours and the small one the minutes. Flower terraces surround it, and from the edge the red roofs of the old town and the Mur river spread out below. Visitors go up by a short funicular, by a glass lift cut through the rock, or on a stairway of 260 steps zigzagging up the cliff. Cafés and restaurants stand at the top, and the bell tower holds «Liesl», the heaviest bell in Graz.
Reversed hands.
Through the rock.
Over the old town.
Central Graz, Styria, Austria
By funicular, lift or the stairs.
The large hand shows hours, the small one minutes.