Linz, capital of Upper Austria, is Austria's third largest city after Vienna and Graz. It is attractively situated on both banks of the Danube, which widens here after emerging from its narrow passage through the outliers of the Bohemian Forest into the Linz basin. Linz first appears in the records as the Roman fortified camp of Lentia in the
second C. A.D. In 1490 the Emperor Frederick III, who resided here from 1485 to 1493, bestowed the rank of "Hauptstadt" (chief town or capital), and in 1497 the town was granted permission to build a bridge over the Danube. It became the see of a bishop in 1785. Among those who lived and worked in Linz were the novelist Adalbert Stifter, Mozart, Kepler and Anton Bruckner. The town, now busy with industry and commerce, has extensive port installations. The main part is situated on the right bank of the Danube, backed on the west by the Freinberg (336m/1,102ft). On the left bank lies the district of Urfahr, with the Pöstlingberg (538m/1,765ft) rising above it to the northwest. Among the principal industrial establishments in Linz are the VO+ST-Alpine AG iron and steel works and Chemie Linz AG (chemicals).
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