The Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex, the last Nazi concentration camp to close, is located mostly around Linz, with the main camp in Mauthausen just 30 kilometres away.

Economy

Linz today is still an industrial city. The VOEST ALPINE a large steel mill (Founded as “Hermann Göring Werke” during WWII, famous for the LD- ("Linz-Donawitz") procedure for the production of steel) and the former “Chemie Linz” a chemical group, now split up in several companies, made Linz to one of Austria’s most important economical centers. Linz is also home of the famous PEZ dispensers of peppermint candy.

Linz also serves as important transportation hub for the region of both Upper Austria and, to a lesser degree, southern Bohemia. The international airport (LNZ / LOWL) lies about 10 km southwest of the town center. Direct flights include London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna with additional seasonal routes added during summer and winter months. The city lies on Austria’s main rail axis, the so-called ‘Westbahn’, linking Vienna with western Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There is also river transport on the Danube.

Sights

The main street “Landstrasse” leads from the “Blumauerplatz” to the main square. In the middle of this square the high “Pestsaule” ("plague column", also known as “Dreifaltigkeitssaule” (Dreifaltigkeit = holy trinity) ) was built to remember the people who died in the plague epidemics.