Wels is a working Upper Austrian city of about 60,000 people on the river Traun, halfway between Linz and Salzburg. The Romans founded it as Ovilava, a key trading colony on the road to the Danube — pieces of that history still surface in cellar walls and the layout of the long main square. Today Wels is best known in Austria for the Messe Wels trade-fair complex, which keeps the hotels full several weeks a year.
For the visitor, the city is a half-day stop rather than a destination in its own right. The Stadtplatz is one of the longest closed market squares in Austria, bookended by the Ledererturm and the Gothic Stadtpfarrkirche, with the Kaiserliche Burg — where Emperor Maximilian I died in 1519 — a short walk off it. Pair that with the Zoo Schmiding just north of town if you are travelling with children.