Hauptplatz, Graz

The Hauptplatz stands in Graz’s Innere Stadt, the first district, where five lanes—Herrengasse, Schmiedgasse, Murgasse, Sackstraße and Sporgasse—branch off like spokes from the trapezoid-shaped square. It was laid out around 1160 as the city’s central market by Duke Otakar III and once stretched as far as today’s Landhausgasse before the Renaissance town hall was built in the mid-16th century. The surrounding houses still show medieval to late-Gothic cores, their façades later dressed in late-Gothic, Baroque, Biedermeier and late-Historicist styles, with rich stucco and carved Madonnas recalling centuries of folk devotion. The square’s centrepiece is the Erzherzog-John fountain, erected in 1878, which became the focal point when the town hall was remodelled between 1887 and 1893. Until the Neutor tram line opens in 2025, the Hauptplatz was one of only two stops served by every route in the city. Around the fountain, mobile stalls preserve the medieval market atmosphere; after 2002 they were standardised into hydraulically raised units that roll aside only for major festivals. The stretch between fountain and town hall hosts regular events and two night-time sausage stands. Visitors find a wide, open space framed by historic façades and punctuated by the bronze statue of Archduke John. The town hall’s clock tower, lit from within since 1930, serves as a landmark for the Weikhard clock in front of the watchmaker’s shop. Beneath the paving lie service shafts for power, water and drainage, ready for market stalls or concerts, while an underground toilet and a lift to the Schloßberg shelters dug in the Second World War lie nearby.