Upper Austria

The technology, science and digital media of the future are in the spotlight at Linz' biggest crowd-puller. In the labs you can interact with robots, animate digital objects, print 3D structures, turn your body into musical instruments and (virtually) travel to outer space. Kids love it. Designed by Vienna-based architectural firm Treusch, the centre resembles a futuristic ship by the Danube after dark, when its LED glass skin kaleidoscopically changes colour.

Franz Schubert called Steyr ‘inconceivably lovely’ and was inspired to pen the sprightly Trout Quintet here. And lovely it is: on the confluence of the swiftly flowing Enns and Steyr Rivers, the postcard-like old town of cobbled lanes and candy-hued baroque houses is one of Upper Austria’s most attractive.

Tarzan wannabes can take a head-spinning walk above the treetops at Baumkronenweg, a canopy boardwalk in Kopfing, 21km east of Schärding. Stretching 2.5km, the elevated trail snakes above misty spruce trees and passes lookout towers, rope bridges and platforms that afford bird’s-eye perspectives over the forest. You can sleep among the trees at the Baumhotel.

This little-known, almost untouched wilderness of rugged limestone mountains, high moors, and over 80% spruce, fir and beech forest is home to the elusive golden eagle and lynx. Bordering Styria, this is Austria’s second-largest national park (after Hohe Tauern)) at 208 sq km. Its valleys and gorges cut through classic alpine landscapes, dominated by Hoher Nock (1963m).

Kremsmünster’s enormous Benedictine abbey dates from 777, but was given a baroque facelift in the 18th century. Elaborate stucco and frescoes shape the long, low Bibliothek (library), where shelves creak under 160,000 volumes, and the Kaisersaal (Emperor’s Hall). The most prized piece in the Schatzkammer (treasury) is the gold Tassilo Chalice, which the Duke of Bavaria donated to the monks in about 780. You can visit all three on a one-hour guided tour (available in English).

Rising like a vision above St Florian, this abbey dates at least to 819 and has been occupied by the Canons Regular, living under Augustinian rule, since 1071. Today its imposing yellow-and-white facade is overwhelmingly baroque.

You can only visit the abbey’s interior by guided tour, which takes in the resplendent apartments adorned with rich stuccowork and frescoes. They include 16 emperors’ rooms (once occupied by visiting popes and royalty) and a galleried library housing 150,000 volumes.

Mauthausen's status as a quarrying centre prompted the Nazis to site KZ Mauthausen concentration camp here. Prisoners were forced into slave labour in the granite quarry and many died on the Todesstiege (stairway of death) leading from the quarry to the camp. Some 100,000 prisoners died or were executed on site between 1938 and 1945. The camp has been turned into the emotive Mauthausen Memorial, which tells its history, and that of other camps such as those at Ebensee and Melk.

The little riverside village of Engelhartszell an der Donau is home to one of only eight licensed Trappist breweries outside Belgium, and the only one in Austria. At the abbey Engelszell (founded 1293), you can purchase monk-made brews (dark Gregorius, amber Benno, and blond Nivard); the shop also sells apple juice, liqueurs and cheeses produced here by the monks. Adjoining the shop is the abbey's gorgeous rococo church, completed in 1764.