Austria

Country in central Europe.
Languages: German.
Currency: euro.
Capital: Vienna.
Population: 8,210,281 (2009 estimate).
Area: 83,872 sq km (32,383 sq mi).
Official Name: Republic of Austria.
Major Cities:
Vienna

Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million (2.3 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations such as the United Nations and OPEC. Vienna lies in the east of Austria and is close to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. With the close by Bratislava, Vienna forms a 3 million inhabitants metropolitan region, referred to as Twin City. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 an Economist Intelligence Unit study of 127 world cities ranked it tied with Vancouver for first for the quality of life. This assessment was mirrored by the Mercer Survey in 2009 and 2010.
______________________________________________________________________________ Graz

Graz is the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna and the capital of the federal state of Styria. It has a population of 291,890 as of 2010 (of which 258.605 have principal residence status). Graz has a long tradition as a student city: its six universities have more than 44,000 students. Graz's "Old Town" is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe. In 1999, it was added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. Graz was sole Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003 and has got the title of a City of Culinary Delights in 2008.
______________________________________________________________________________ Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria German: Oberösterreich). It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is 189,284 (2009), and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is 271,000.
______________________________________________________________________________ Salzburg

Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" (Altstadt) with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its Alpine setting. It is the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid-20th century, the city was the setting for parts of the musical and film The Sound of Music, which also features famous landmarks in Austria. With three universities, Salzburg is filled with the liveliness of a large student population. ______________________________________________________________________________ Innsbruck

Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal (Sill River), which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Innsbruck. Located in the broad valley between high mountains, the Nordkette (Hafelekar, 2,334 meters (7,657 ft)) in the north, Patscherkofel (2,246 meters (7,369 ft)) and Serles (2,718 meters (8,917 ft)) in the south, it is an internationally renowned winter sports centre, and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics. It is to host the 1st Winter Youth Olympics in 2012. The word bruck comes from the German word Brücke meaning "bridge" which leads to "the bridge over the Inn". ______________________________________________________________________________ Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia in Austria. With a population of over 90,000 it is the sixth-largest city in the country. The city is the bishop's seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt and home to the Alpen-Adria University.
______________________________________________________________________________ Villach

Villach is the second largest city in Carinthia in the south of Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. As of December 2006, the population is 58,480.
______________________________________________________________________________ Wels
Wels is the second largest city of the state of Upper Austria, located in the north of Austria, upon the Traun River near Linz. It is not part of its surrounding Wels County (Bezirk Wels-Land), but a so-called Statutarstadt (independent city). However, Wels is the county seat of Wels-Land.
______________________________________________________________________________ Sankt Polten
Sankt Pölten is the capital city of the Austrian State of Lower Austria. With 51,073 inhabitants (counted 2005) it is Lower Austria's largest city. Sankt Pölten is a city with its own statute (or Statutarstadt) and therefore it is both a municipality and a district in the Mostviertel.
______________________________________________________________________________ Dornbirn
Dornbirn is a city in Vorarlberg, Austria. It is the administrative center of the district (Bezirk) Dornbirn, which also includes the city of Hohenems, and the market town Lustenau. The largest city in Vorarlberg and the tenth largest in all of Austria, Dornbirn is an important commercial and shopping center.
______________________________________________________________________________ Steyr

Steyr is a town in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria, located at the confluence of the rivers Steyr and Enns. Steyr is Austria´s 12th biggest city. It has a long history as a manufacturing center, and has given its name to several manufacturers headquartered there, such as Steyr Mannlicher (a firearms manufacturer best known for the Steyr AUG), Steyr Tractor, and Steyr Automobile.
______________________________________________________________________________ Wiener Neustadt

Wiener Neustadt is a town located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land.
______________________________________________________________________________ Feldkirch
Feldkirch is a medieval city in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg, at 47°15′N 9°35′E / 47.25°N 9.583°E / 47.25; 9.583, on the border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has a population of 32,193 (2007), and is the administrative center of the district Feldkirch. After Dornbirn, it is the second largest town in Vorarlberg in terms of population, with slightly more inhabitants than the state capital Bregenz. The beautiful medieval town, which remains well preserved to this day, was mentioned as a city for the first time in 1218, after Count Hugo von Montfort built the "Schattenburg", a castle which still is the major landmark of Feldkirch. Other landmarks of the town include the cathedral of St. Nikolaus from the late Gothic period. It was the birthplace of Rheticus. The town is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Feldkirch. The writer James Joyce paid a visit to Feldkirch in 1932 to see his friend Eugene Jolas. He famously remarked to Jolas "Over there, on those tracks, the fate of Ulysses was decided in 1915". Joyce had travelled through Feldkirch by train in 1915, when he moved from Trieste to Zürich to avoid the complexities of living in Austria-Hungary during the first world war. The train was boarded and passengers inspected by officials; if Joyce had been arrested then, he would have been unable to write Ulysses in its present form. There is a passage in the town named after him, and a dedication to him at the train station. In recent years Feldkirch has built a reputation of having a top ice hockey team. They won the European Cup in 1997/1998 with stars such as Gustafsson and Rundqvist. Feldkirch is officially twinned with the Town of Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
______________________________________________________________________________ Bregenz
Bregenz is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost federal state of Austria. The city is located on the eastern shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the west and Germany in the northwest. The city is situated on a plateau falling in a series of terraces to the lake at the foot of Pfänder mountain. It is a junction of the arterial roads from the Rhine valley to the German Alpine foothills, with cruise ship services on Lake Constance. Bregenz is twinned with Bangor in Northern Ireland, and various exchange trips take place between the two places. Another twin town is Acre in Israel. It is especially famous for the annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele.
______________________________________________________________________________ Wolfsberg
The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden Aichberg, Auen, Forst, Gräbern-Prebl, Gries, Hartelsberg, Hattendorf, Hintertheißenegg, Kleinedling, Kleinwinklern, Lading, Leiwald, Michaelsdorf, Oberleidenberg, Priel, Reding, Reideben, Reisberg, Rieding, Ritzing, Schoßbach, Schwemmtratten, Sankt Jakob, Sankt Johann, Sankt Marein, Sankt Margarethen, Sankt Michael, Sankt Stefan, Thürn, Unterleidenberg, Vordergumitsch, Vordertheißenegg, Waldenstein, Weißenbach, Witra, Wolfsberg Obere Stadt and Wolfsberg Untere Stadt. It is situated within the Lavanttal Alps in the valley of the Lavant River, a tributary to the Drava. The Packsattel mountain pass connects Wolfsberg with Voitsberg in Styria.
______________________________________________________________________________