UPPER AUSTRIA
- Mar 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 31
Upper Austria is the area between the Danube and the Alps, where industrial cities rub shoulders with the lakeside landscapes of the Salzkammergut, creating a balance between strict practicality and unexpected natural beauty.
UPPER AUSTRIA: ICONIC LANDMARKS
The Salzkammergut looks like a postcard: lakes, mountains and villages where you want to slow down.
Upper Austria is located in the north of the country and divided by the Danube. Above all, it boasts magical nature: majestic mountains reflected in the crystal-clear lakes of the Salzkammergut, sunny meadows, lush forests, the underground salt mines, the charm of ancient lakeside towns, ancient abbeys, and medieval castles.
Linz is the cultural center of Upper Austria. The best view of the city can be found from the Pöstlingberg hill. The Lentos Museum displays Austrian painting, and in the evening, a colorful glass cube interacts with the changing LED façade of the Ars Electronica Center. The musical theater in the Volksgarten impresses with its architecture and media technology.
The Imperial Villa in Bad Ischl demonstrates why this neoclassical residence captivated the emperor's heart far more than the splendor of his Viennese palaces. The rooms still exude the spirit of a bygone era; it seems as if Emperor Franz Joseph I had just emerged from his study to greet Sissi and indulge in his favorite pastime — hunting.
The picturesque Orth Castle, located on a tiny island in the middle of Lake Traunsee, is not only one of the oldest buildings in the Salzkammergut, but also holds many fascinating stories: for example, the legend of the giant Erl, who is said to have built the castle out of love for a nymph.
UPPER AUSTRIA: COAT OF ARMS' HISTORY
The coat of arms of Upper Austria carefully divides the space between tradition and state order.
This land was once a distant borderland for the Bavarian dukes, then a Habsburg "showcase window" to the north. Medieval fortresses controlled the salt routes, and the first master foundries built blast furnaces on Lake Traunsee. From the 16th century, the region became a hotbed of Protestant unrest: peasants here debated their faith more heatedly than anywhere else. Upper Austria is a land of stubborn people and strong traditions.
The origins of the Upper Austrian coat of arms trace back to the ancient noble family of von Machland — a respected, wealthy, and self-confident family. Their estates stretched along the Enns River and reached Salzburg, Upper Bavaria, and Carinthia. The Machlands adorned their seals with an eagle — a universal symbol of strength, power, and far-reaching ambitions. Two red stripes on a silver field were most likely borrowed from the coat of arms of their relatives, the von Perg family. In heraldry, such family borrowings were considered good form, not plagiarism.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Perg and Machland clans amassed considerable wealth and established authority at the court of the Austrian Babenbergs, to whom they were related. One of the most prominent figures was Otto von Machland, a man of action and, especially prized in the Middle Ages, generous. Together with his wife Juta (and, as chronicles suspect, not without her persistent advice), he founded the abbeys of Baumgartenberg and Waldhausen. Piety was then considered a reliable investment, especially in the afterlife.
When the von Machland line died out in 1390, the coat of arms came under the patronage of the Austrian dukes and gradually became a symbol of the entire region upon Enns. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, this river once again became the center of attention: it was used to divide Upper and Lower Austria. According to contemporaries, this was done for purely administrative reasons.
The modern coat of arms of Upper Austria is a typical example of a "composite" coat of arms . It combines an eagle and a red-and-white shield: two symbols whose harmony depended directly on the artist's imagination, the patience of the herald, and the personal preferences of the coat of arms' owner. The eagle could have been left proportional but halved, or whole but slightly flattened. Ultimately, the decision was made to retain the flattened form. In heraldry, as in life, compromise is an art.
UPPER AUSTRIA: FUN FACTS
Of the old historical anecdotes.
In the westernmost part of the federal state, on the border with Bavaria, lies the small town of Braunau am Inn. The town doesn't exactly strive to impress tourists, save for some of its natives and a rather unique coat of arms: two full coats of arms (which, incidentally, represent the coats of arms of the German regions of Palatinate and Bavaria) are neatly placed within the main shield — a rarity even by the eccentric standards of heraldic design.
What do you do if you're the mayor of a tiny town, beloved by the locals and elected six times in a row, but still want something a little different? Eccentricity can help. In the 16th century, Hans Steininger was the mayor of Braunau am Inn. His signature feature was his two-meter-long beard, which he usually carried rolled up in his pocket when walking. However, one day she played a deadly trick on him: a fire broke out in the city, from which Hans tried to escape, but ended up getting tangled in his own beard, tripping, and breaking his neck. The beard is now on display in the city museum.
UPPER AUSTRIA: ALPINE SKIING
Upper Austria's beauty is that it doesn't shout about itself: here, skiing is seamlessly integrated into the Salzkammergut landscape, as if snow and mountains have always been a part of everyday life.
Dachstein West is a story of space without fuss. This is a resort without unnecessary noise, where skiing takes place against the backdrop of one of Austria's most beautiful mountain ranges. There's no sense of a "giant resort" here, but there's a rare sense of cohesion: villages, slopes, and panoramas flow into a single, calm rhythm.
The main points are Gosau, Russbach, and Annaberg. Between them, gentle, logically connected pistes stretch, ideal for long, leisurely runs. The overall area is large, but easy to navigate. The main character is the Dachstein massif. It's constantly in view, setting the scale and adding depth to every run. People don't choose this place for records. They come here for the feeling of "their own" resort, where they can ski all day and never feel overwhelmed by the crowds. The accompanying emotions are modestly reflected in the logo on the pink circle.
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