Things To Do in Wels

Beautifully decorated facades of old houses, an intricately carved fountain, and a broad, cobbled pavement make Stadtplatz one of the most architecturally harmonious town squares in Austria. Most of the houses date from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The baroque Rathaus, built in 1748, is one of the most ornate buildings in the Old Town. The Ledererturm, dating from 1618, is the only tower remaining of those that once studded the town walls. Many homes or shops in the Old Town are supported by arches and passageways with vaulted ceilings.

Emperor Maximilian I died in Wels in 1519, stricken as he was traveling from the Tyrolean country to Wiener Neustadt. The house in which he died, Kaiserliche Burg, is on Burggasse, and has been turned into a museum of minor importance. You can see the room in which the emperor took his last breath.

The Stadtpfarrkirche (Town Parish Church) has a 14th-century Gothic chancel and three stained-glass windows from that same century. The entire church was once Gothic until baroque architects went to work on it. The Romanesque inner doorway is surmounted by a tower with a bulbous dome, dating from 1732.

Across from the church stands the privately owned Salome Alt House. Salome Alt was the mistress of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich, so frequently encountered in Salzburg history, and mother of 15 of his children. Following Wolf Dietrich's disgrace and overthrow, she retired to Wels.

On Ringstrasse, you can see what's left of Schloss Pollheim, where, the story goes, the shoemaker-poet Hans Sachs lived. Wagner is said to have based his character in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on Sachs.