Graz

Graz
Rathaus (Town Hall) at dusk
Coat of arms
Graz Location within Austria
Coordinates: 47°4′N 15°26′E / 47.067°N 15.433°E / 47.067; 15.433Coordinates: 47°4′N 15°26′E / 47.067°N 15.433°E / 47.067; 15.433
Country	Austria
State	Styria
District	Statutory city
Government
• Mayor	Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP)
Area
• Total	127.56 km2 (49.25 sq mi)
Elevation	353 m (1,158 ft)
Population (1 January 2016)
• Total	280,200
• Density	2,200/km2 (5,700/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal codes	A-801x, A-802x, A-803x, A-804x, A-805x
Area codes	+43 316
Vehicle registration	G
Website	www.graz.at

UNESCO World Heritage Site

City of Graz – Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Location	Austria
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv
Reference	931bis
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1999 (23rd Session)
Extensions	2010

Largest groups of foreign residents
Nationality	Population (2014)
Germany	6,611
Bosnia and Herzegovina	5,850
Romania	5,772
Croatia	5,326
Turkey	4,765
Hungary	3,172
Slovenia	2,061
Slovakia	1,938
Italy	1,578
Russia	1,568
Serbia	1,410
Kosovo	1,315
Afghanistan	1,000
Nigeria	935
Poland	881
Egypt	750

Graz (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʁaːt͡s]) is the capital of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. On 1 January 2017, it had a population of 320,587 (of which 286,686 had principal residence status). In 2014, the population of the Graz Larger Urban Zone who had principal residence status stood at 605,143.

Graz has a long tradition as a "university town": its six universities have more than 44,000 students. Its "Old Town" is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe.

Politically and culturally, Graz was for centuries more important for Slovenes than Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and still remains influential.

In 1999, Graz was added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites, and the site was extended in 2010 by Schloss Eggenberg. Graz was sole Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003 and got the title of a City of Culinary Delights in 2008.

The name of the city, Graz, formerly spelled Gratz, stems most likely from the Slavic gradec, "small castle". Some archaeological finds point to the erection of a small castle by Alpine Slavic people, which in time became a heavily defended fortification. In literary Slovene, gradec still means "small castle", forming a hypocoristic derivative of Proto-West-South Slavic *gradьcъ, whichs descends via liquid metathesis from Common Slavic *gardьcъ and via the Slavic third palatalisation from Proto-Slavic *gardiku (cf. the Ancient Greek toponym Γαρδίκι), originally denoting "small town, settlement". The name thus follows the common South Slavic pattern for naming settlements as grad. The German name 'Graz' first appears in records in 1128.