People love traveling for different reasons, for great photos, for tasty food, or for experiencing other cultures. For me, the most exciting thing is hearing good stories, no matter historical or scientific stories. Feeling that I understand the world a little more is always fantastic. We are lucky to meet a wonderful guide Sibylle Gauby in this Graz trip, who is erudite and humorous, telling a lot of interesting stories, definitely the best guild I have met so far.
In last blog, I was talking about that there are lots of hiding courtyards and galleries, which connected the Graz city like a maze. Sibylle took us though the maze, towards here and there, to see different interesting architectures, such as the City Hall, kissing staircase, singing and dancing bell, floating island, etc.
⬇️Graz hand-drawn map
Crown of the city: palaces, churches, tombs, university
In the east of the center square, there is a group of buildings, known as the crown of the city (Crown of the town-Stadtkrone), including the old palace, the cathedral, imperial tombs and Jesuit university. Because this location is for the royal residence, and the imperial tomb (Mausoleum) has a big green dome, this group of buildings is called the crown of the city .
Among all the buildings, the old Palace (Burg) is the only one that has not been kept till now. Not because of damage, but was because of an order from one ruler (I don't remember who, and couldn't find it online). Luckily the demolition people missed a hidden staircase, which has a double spiral shape, I like to call it "Kissing staircase " which sounds more interesting. The two spiral parts go all the way up, meet and depart, meet and depart, until finally together. Like in love, dating couples might need to go through arguments before getting to know each other more. Fabulous ideas. This shape also reminded me DNA.
⬇️Kissing staircase
Across the street, there is a Gothic church which was built in 1438. But in 17th century the inside was renovated with Baroque style which is popular in that period. So now the interior looks a bit mix in style.
The most funny story we heard from Sibylle was about this church. According to the historical records, there was no chair at the outer part of the church at the beginning. And by then the atmosphere of the church is not so serious, people were walking around and chatting when waiting to enter the inner part of the church to prey. The funny thing is, some archaeologists found a post which was originally in front of the church for centuries. The post says" "Please do not take your chicken or dogs to the church, please keep quiet" ... Can not stop laughing when imaging that picture.
⬇️ Gothic and Baroque mixed-style in this church
Adjacent to the Gothic church stands the imperial tombs . It was also builded by Ferdinand II, who was by then still a prince residing in Graz. In 1614 he appointed his Italian imperial architect to build it. It was claimed to be the first Renaissance-style dome built outside Italy area.
⬇️Mausoleum with a Renaissance dome
Across the street there is the Jesuit University. As a Catholic, Prince Archduke Charles II built it in 1585, in order to fight with the local predominant Protestant. Sibylle told us that the most effective way for pushing the Catholic idea is not teaching, but something else. Guess what is it? Bingo, Of course it is a show, it is an opera, as we are in Austria! So they turn this pretty courtyard to a big stage, like any other open big places in Graz.... This method got the Catholic Church a lot of fans.
⬇️ Renaissance style courtyard in the Jesuit university
There is a snowman in this orange-color courtyard. In from of it, there is even a tiny pool...If it was not in Summary, I would think it was a real snowman!
So why do people put such a snowman in this courtyard? Well thinking about this: The snowman is looking at his reflection in the water, and water comes from the its melting. So he is actually watching his own dying. Very philosophical, isn't it? Philosophical and religion are not that far from each other.
So why do people put such a snowman in this courtyard? Well thinking about this: The snowman is looking at his reflection in the water, and water comes from the its melting. So he is actually watching his own dying. Very philosophical, isn't it? Philosophical and religion are not that far from each other.
⬇️ A snowman in the courtyard
ClockenSpiel
Graz and Prague have too many similarities: the well-preserved medieval cities, wonderful city view from hills nearby; and both have singing & dancing clocks. Only that Graz is much smaller, in both city size, hill size, and the clock size. Graz is also less touristing and more quiet.
⬇️ People watching ClockenSpiel
At every 11:00, 15:00 and 18:00, the clock with 24 bells will play three songs, meanwhile the couple dressed in traditional Styrian workers' clothes will start to rotate - I called it dancing. The three songs were played really slow, hard to get the tune... After the songs finished, the chicken on the top flapped its wings and blew.
⬇️ a couple dressed in traditional Styrian workers' clothes
In fact it is indeed an imitation, but mimicking the Cock Gottfried Maurer in Munich, Germany. In 1884, an alcohol trader, Gottfried Maurer, bought the building where the ClockenSpiel is located now. Later when he travelled to Munich, he was attracted by the Munich clock, and decided to make a similar one for himself. It works well, and attracted a lot of customers.
Even now the ClockenSpiel is still attracting customs for the cafe/pub in the building, as it is a perfect place to watch not only the clock, but also the people who watch the clock.
⬇️ people looking at the clock, I'm looking at them
An artificial island in Mur River
Sibylle again told us a few funny stories about this artificial island, which looks a bit like a small version of the bird's nest in Beijing. At the beginning, this island was designed to celebrate that Graz becomes the 2003 European Capital of Culture. It was intended to be used as a concert hall (as you know, Austrians!). Then they found this is a stupid idea, because the water flow is toooo loud, oh well, i guess Rock music might work, otherwise... Now it becomes a cafe and children's playground.
⬇️ An artificial island in Mur River
Delicious pumpkin seed oil
Finally I would like to recommend a specialty from the Styria area: pumpkin seed oil. It has a special seed flavor which matches super well with potato salad or leave salad. But it has a very low melting point, so it is not proper for cooking. It is also difficult to transport as it is light sensitive, which decomposes under sunshine. So we should always use a dark-color bottle and keep it in shade place.
⬇️ pumpkin seed oil for potato and leaves salad
Although Graz is very small, but there are really a lot to see. Scenery everywhere, many stories, and we were lucky to have a knowledgeable yet humorous guide. Although we only spent a day there, we really absorbed a lot of information, learn a lot of history, feel very satisfied!
Some thoughts on "what makes a good guide"
I always think that it is not easy to be a good tour guide. First one has to be knowledgeable , second one has to be good at telling stories, there two already make it difficult. Being knowledgeable I mean the people have systematically studied history and geography etc., so one not only can tell the rough stories from an area, but knows more details, and can also extend the history to different periods and areas when needed.
I have not met too many good guild when I travel around China, which I think there are some intrinsic problems. Guilds do not earn much just by salary, so people who study history seriously would not like to work as a guild. And even worse, in order to earn more, many of these guilds just collaborate with business shops in order to get money out from tourists's pockets, forcing tourist visiting shops, cheating, etc.
Another problem of many Chinese guilds are that they tell legends in the way that those legends are real history. When I was younger I didn't consider it too bad, and even though it is fun. But now I think it differently. If I have children, I would not like that. If my children believe that "FengShui" can change people's life, or a tree living for 1000 years can satisfy your wishes , how can I explain it... I think history and nature themselves are already interesting enough, do not need to put legend colors to make up good stories. Look at David Attenborough's BBC series!
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