Introducing Linz
Linz dares to defy the braces-and-breeches image of Austria; a city with an urban edge, a thriving youth culture and its feet firmly in the 21st century. It may not have old-world architecture to rival the giddy heights of Vienna or Salzburg, but it comes up trumps in the modern art and new technology stakes, with crystalline venues like Lentos and the Ars Electronica Center.
And who would have thought that this industrial powerhouse had it in it to become European Capital of Culture 2009? By injecting life into the centre in recent years, the city has successfully reinvented itself: where people once diverted their gaze from unsightly smoke stacks, they now crane their necks to ogle glass-walled galleries displaying Kokoschka or daring public art installations. This sleeping city has finally awoken, even though she may not be a classic beauty.
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