Steyr: Old Town, Culture and Nativity Scenes

Anyone looking for a hotel in Steyr can tailor their choice of places to visit to their own interests: historic buildings, puppet theatre, nativity scenes or exploring the history of forced labour are distinct cultural themes. The sites and exhibitions offer insights into different aspects of the city’s history. When planning your stay, it helps to think in advance about which themes matter most to you.

Old Town and Late Gothic Townhouse

Steyr’s historic old town includes more than 700 listed buildings. This figure gives an impression of the scale of the protected building stock and makes the historic architecture a prominent feature of a stay. One building can be linked to a specific story behind its name: the Bummerlhaus was named after the lion-shaped sign above the entrance to the former Löwenwirtshaus inn. The building is described as Austria’s finest Late Gothic townhouse. Architecture enthusiasts will therefore find both a description of its architectural style and an explanation of its name.

Renaissance Building and Its Former Use

The Innerberger Stadel adds a Renaissance-era commercial building to this picture. Its façade is decorated with sgraffito. Its former function is also part of the building’s history: for almost 300 years, the Stadel was used as a storehouse. Its architecture and use can be considered as two separate aspects—the façade’s design and the long period during which the building served for storage. This offers a way to explore the city’s history not only through a building’s architectural style, but also through its former use.

Rod Puppet Theatre and Nativity Scenes

The Steyrer Kripperl combines a local theatrical tradition with a distinctive cultural status: it is one of the last active rod puppet theatres in the German-speaking world and is part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. If you would like to focus on cultural traditions during your trip, this puppet theatre is a distinct highlight alongside the historic architecture.

You can discover a different aspect of nativity scenes at the exhibition in the former Palm House in Steyr Castle Park, a venue of the Steyr City Museum. There, more than 1,100 nativity figures, known as Loahmmandel, populate the nativity landscape. The large number of figures and the carefully designed landscape make this exhibition a distinctive way to explore the nativity tradition. When planning your visit, it is worth distinguishing this focus from the theatrical tradition of the Steyrer Kripperl: both revolve around nativity scenes, but each highlights a different cultural form.

Christkindl and the Christmas Season

Christkindl has long been at the heart of Steyr’s Christmas celebrations. In the Baroque pilgrimage church of Christkindl, a wax figure of the Christ Child can be seen above the tabernacle. This connects the town’s religious tradition with a specific artistic and devotional subject. If this aspect of Steyr interests you, you can include Christkindl as a separate item in your travel plans and consider it separately from the city’s buildings and exhibitions.

Remembrance in the Lamberg Tunnel

The Stollen der Erinnerung exhibition offers another, more sombre historical perspective. It is located in the Lamberg Tunnel near the confluence of the Enns and Steyr rivers. The exhibition explores the history of the Steyr-Münichholz concentration camp and the fate of thousands of forced labourers. Alongside architecture, theatre and religious tradition, the history of forced labour is therefore another distinct focus for a stay in Steyr. When planning your visits, you can consciously distinguish these different themes from one another.

Plan Your Stay in Steyr

City bus route 3 runs between the railway station, Ennsleite and Stadtplatz. If you plan to use this route for getting around, check the timetable for your travel date, as route details may change. This lets you combine your preferred cultural focus with the practical details of planning your trip, without treating the individual places or themes as interchangeable.

Discover more destinations: Goldberg, Losenstein, Schiedlberg, Aschach An Der Steyr, Ternberg, Waldneukirchen, Laussa, Reichraming

Go to the overview of the wider region: Steyr-Land.