City History in brief

The area around Linz shows signs of dwelling since fourth millennium B.C. The Romans built a fortification here in the first century called Lentia.

The Name Linz (together with St. Martin’s Church) is first documented in a deed from the year 799.

Linz was first described as the provincial capital of that part of Austria upstream of the Enns in 1490.

The city was the residence of Emperor Frederick III between 1489 and 1493, from where he ruled the German Roman Empire.
 
Until into the 20th century Linz was a provincial city economically defined by small and medium-sized enterprises. The main impulses for the development of the city came from the salt trade through inter-regional fairs and above all from the thriving textile industry of the 18th century.

The first Textile factory in Austria was founded in 1672.

After 1945 democratic politicians began building a modern industrial and cultural city out of the ruins of the erstwhile ‘City of the Führer’. World-renowned businesses are in the international eye as much as major cultural events such as the Ars Electronica and the Bruckner Festival. As a ‘City of Peace’, Linz is prepared to oppose any kind of aggressive extremism.