The Pöstlingberg basilica and its railway

The Pöstlingberg stands at 539 metres directly north of the Danube, and its pilgrimage basilica — two white towers and a dome, finished in 1748 — is visible from most of Linz. It is the city's emblem in the way a cathedral is elsewhere, and the ride up is half the point: the Pöstlingbergbahn has climbed from the Hauptplatz since 1898 on gradients of up to one in ten, without a rack, which makes it one of the steepest adhesion railways anywhere.

At the top the church sits on a small terrace with a low wall, and beyond it the ground falls away over the whole Danube basin — the city, the river, the industrial east and, on a clear morning, the Alps along the southern horizon. The interior is baroque, open outside services, and small enough that it fills quickly.

The terrace faces south over the city, so the light is behind you most of the day and the view is cleanest in the morning before the haze builds. The basilica's own façade takes the sun from mid-morning onwards.

Autumn and winter are the reason to come: cold, still mornings fill the Danube valley with fog and leave the basilica standing in sun above a white floor with only the tallest buildings breaking through. From late November there is a small Christmas market on the hill. The tram runs all day at regular intervals; check the current timetable and the last departure down.