Steyr is essentially a walking museum. Start at the Stadtplatz, one of the most beautiful town squares in central Europe, ringed by Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque facades. The Bummerlhaus is the standout — a 15th-century burgher house with an arcaded courtyard and an unbroken survival across six centuries. From the square, climb to Schloss Lamberg, the former Styraburg castle, which still towers over the confluence of the Steyr and Enns rivers.
Don't miss the Stadtpfarrkirche with its connection to Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert (Schubert composed his "Trout Quintet" in Steyr), the late-Gothic interior of the Michaelerkirche on the other side of the river, and the Stadtmuseum in the sgraffitto-covered Innerberger Stadel, which tells the story of the city's iron industry. The Christkindl pilgrimage church, a few kilometres outside the centre, runs the famous Christmas post office that hand-stamps mail with the "Christkindl" cancellation.
Active visitors can take the Steyrtal-Museumsbahn, Europe's oldest narrow-gauge steam railway, up the Steyr valley in summer, or use Steyr as a base for trips into the Nationalpark Kalkalpen to the south.