Only a few miles down the Danube, in the area of the industrial harbour, the city’s industrial heritage is remarkably combined with contemporary art. Europe’s biggest Graffiti Gallery with 2.500 m2, known as Mural Harbor, can only be found in Linz. About two hundred Graffiti, some of them of monumental size, decorate the facades of the old industrial constructions and offices at the harbor of Linz. Artists from about fifty nations transformed the docklands of Linz to an art hotspot. The project of Mural Harbour brightens up the greyish port buildings and adds another interesting and surprising experience to the city’s cultural offer.
In the harbor of Linz are a lot of huge warehouses, containers, cranes and railways. By general desire of the habitants and the workers in the area, it has been decided to pimp up the buildings. Out of that project emerged one of the biggest coherent Graffiti-Galleries in Europe. Mural Harbor already counts about two hundred Graffiti. National and international artists like Aryz, Lors, Nychos or Roa are already a big part of the gallery. The professional guides know every important thing about these artworks and after the guided tours every visitor can try to create a graffiti art piece by himself.
There are different ways to visit all the artworks in the area as for instance by boat or by foot. A professional will guide the visitors through the open-air-gallery. Every tour ends with a graffiti crash course for each guest.
Mural Harbor is a unique way to make industrial heritage accessible for the public, to connect it with contemporary art and to spark discussions. Since Linz is very much influenced by its industrial past, Mural Harbour is a great project to combine the city’s past while implementing it into present day developments. The project has achieved to valorise and upgrade the harbour area, which has not been interesting from a touristic point of view. Therefore, the preservation of old port buildings is secured.
