Graz: the clock with the reversed hands

Austria's second-largest city, Graz preserves a UNESCO-listed historic center and a contemporary art museum nicknamed 'the friendly alien'.

The center is visited on foot; there's a funicular for Schlossberg.

On the Hauptplatz, the main square, Baroque and Renaissance palaces surround the town hall in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage old city.

Ascending by funicular railway to Schlossberg, one reaches the Clock Tower, symbol of the city, whose hands work in reverse of the usual: the large one marks the hours, the small one the minutes.

Crossing the Mur River, one reaches the Kunsthaus Graz, a building with organic forms built in 2003, nicknamed by inhabitants the 'friendly alien'.

Towards evening, the Murinsel, an artificial floating platform on the river, offers a café suspended between the two banks to close the day, connected to each by pedestrian bridges.

The inverted hands of the Schlossberg clock arose from a practical need: from the city below, the shorter hand was too difficult to distinguish, so it was enlarged to mark the hours.

The Kunsthaus, built for Graz's year as European Capital of Culture in 2003, still divides residents' opinion between those who love it and those who find it out of place in the historic center.