The most beautiful cities in Austria

Welcome to one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. Austria’s landscapes, regions and townscapes provide almost the full range of European variety in the centre of the continent. Austria is often associated, rightly, with winter sports, but there is so much more on offer. Its alpine areas are rugged and picturesque, but that’s far from being the whole story.

Kremsmünster

The little town of Kremsmünster is the site of an abbey that was founded in the 8th century and became one of the most powerful in Austria.

Today's Baroque abbey church contains a cenotaph to Gunter, son of the founder duke Tassilo, and a chalice from the period. The abbey library houses tens of thousands of books. The abbey fish ponds are a rare treasure of architecture.
But the abbey also became an observatory. The 18th century abbot Alexander Fixlmillner also had the remarkable Mathematischer Turm completed for all manner of scientific research, including geophysics and meteorology, and weather observations began soon after in what is touted as Europe's first high-rise building.

In the old town are late Gothic houses.