Steyr

Steyr stands where two green rivers meet, and the meeting point — the Zusammenfluss of Enns and Steyr, with Gothic and Rococo façades rising straight from the water — is among the loveliest urban views in Austria. Iron made the town: for centuries Steyr was the capital of the Eisenwurzen, the "iron roots" region that forged the Habsburg lands' blades and tools, and its merchant wealth built the Stadtplatz with the celebrated Bummerlhaus of 1497, a late-Gothic masterpiece that serves as the town's emblem. The industrial genius never left — Steyr's works produced everything from rifles to automobiles, with Ferdinand Porsche among their chief engineers.

Music chose Steyr for two tender episodes. Franz Schubert, summering here with friends in 1819, received from the local patron Sylvester Paumgartner the commission for a quintet using his song "Die Forelle" — the Trout Quintet, music as clear as the rivers it was written beside. Anton Bruckner returned summer after summer to the parish house, playing the church's great organ and labouring on his unfinished Ninth Symphony; the town honours both with memorials and a Schubert festival tradition.

Add Christkindl, the pilgrimage suburb whose Christmas post office answers letters addressed to the Christ Child from around the world, and Steyr completes itself: iron and water, industry and grace, a trout stream running through music history.