GRAZ, AUSTRIA - Though arguably one of the loveliest centers in all of Europe, this is the forgotten city of Austria. Just 120 kilometers south of Vienna, its citizens have always collectively lived in the shadow of its more famous and glamorous cousin to the north.
         
Much like the sister of a beautiful film star, her virtues are usually overlooked, her physical assets are skipped over, and while her charm is acknowledged, it is seldom scrutinized. Yet, here is one of the crown jewels of Europe - fresh and casual in the way it approaches its history and culture, a place that proudly embraces both its arts and its farming traditions.

Graz is one of Europe’s great centers of art and intellect with historical sites dating from the Gothic, Renaissance, baroque and classical periods. The second largest city in Austria (250,000 pop.), it has one of great opera houses of Europe, with 1200 seats with a rococo interior in red, white and gold. And nearby is the stud-farm of the Lipizzaner horses of the Vienna Riding School.
         
In Graz, unlike in Vienna, you won't find great names whose ghosts haunt the living at every creative turn. Rather it merges its past with the present without mortgaging today to yesterday. Its most famous alumni are conductor Nicholas Harnoncourt and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger - not as glorious, perhaps, as having Mozart as your cultural core, but locals don't particularly care.
                   
The city core is 866 years old and while age is nothing new in Europe, the character of Graz's old town is special. A great part of it is preserved in its original state - narrow streets, no auto traffic - and it's the largest "old town" in Central Europe that is still lived in.
         
Resting along the River Mur, what's left of its walls may today be a tourist attraction, but at one time were responsible for keeping the advancing Turks at bay in the late 17th Century. The major part of the walls tumbled down in 1784 when the Hapsburg Emperor, Joseph II, declared Graz and open city.
Graz was once an important crossroads between east and west. If you drive south for 33 miles, you reach Slovenia, in what used to be Yugoslavia. And driving about 70 miles southeast from the old town will take you to the Hungarian border.
         
The name, "Graz", is rooted in the Slavic word, "gradec", meaning "little castle", referring to the fortification that topped the Schlossberg. In fact, the Schlossberg is still the most prominent feature of the city, rising 1550 ft. directly above the old town. It's from that vantage point you can get the best view of the city.
         
If you're a fitness buff you can walk up the 400 switch backed steps that rise from the base at the Schlossbergplatz, not far from the main plaza just past 18 Sackstrasse. Several good restaurants are at the foot of the steps. There is a funicular handy if you eat.
         
As European castles go, there's not much to see atop the Schlossberg. You go there for views of the surrounding countryside and the city itself. The large structure that once crested the hill was ordered destroyed after the Napoleonic Wars.  

The best way to experience the city's history is to attend the many music events that dominate Graz during summer. The Cloister of the Minorites, the Eggenberg Palace, the Stefaniensaal, the Opera House, all offer the music listener the chance to roam at will and simply absorb the surrounding art.
         
Since 1985, Harnoncourt - the great-grandson of Archduke Johann - has conducted his Chamber Orchestra of Europe in his own Styriarte festival, held in the 17th Century Eggenberg Palace and in ancient halls, late June through late July.

The grounds of the Eggenberg Palace - on the right bank of the city and a "must visit" with or without music - are transformed into food dispensing tents, jazz venues, and places where local bands perform. Inside the palace, built in 1625, is a more sedate musical menu with small ensembles playing in the Hall Of The Planets, likened to a huge baroque wedding cake of a room covered with 600 gilt-edged frescoes and elaborate stucco decorations.

And one of the first places to explore is the Church Of The Franciscans (Franziskanerkirche), completed in 1277 with its bulb-shaped bell tower cupola finished in 1643. Emperor Maximillian I forced the original occupants, the Minorites, to give up the monastery in 1515 and they have been there ever since. Go behind the church to the cloisters, with its tombs dating to the 15th Century and a 14th Century chapel where the 10 monks, who still reside there, pray.         
             
Within 20 minutes drive south of Graz, are the rolling Styrian hills where you can sample the unique Schilcher wine from grapes that grow on hills at elevations of 980 to 3300 ft.  While Styria contributes only five per cent of the total Austrian wine output, its specialty products such as Schilcher (a light, dry wine with a sharp flavor), are in worldwide demand.
         
Tours leave the city daily with wine-tasting in local cellars in any of the four different wine routes a part of the package. Try to get a tour that includes lunch at the Wirtshaus Jagawirt in the Schilcher. Owned and operated by Werner and Maria Goach, its use of cut woods, small eating rooms, and traditional Styrian architecture create a picture book experience.
         
The star attraction of the outlying region is in Piber near Koflach, where you find the Federal stud farm of the Lipizzaner horses of the Vienna Riding School, The small, white horses trace their heritage to 1580 when the Archduke Karl of Styria built a stud farm in the once-Styrian town of Lippiza, near Triste. After the First World War, Austria lost Lippiza and the farm was transferred to Piber. Born black, the horses gradually turn white between the ages of two and seven.
         
The combination of city sophistication and country style openness makes Graz and its region a remarkable place. It is fresh, unpretentious, yet every bit as culturally urbane as either Vienna or Salzburg.
         
That its citizens move easily between that past and a modern lifestyle that includes horses and vineyards, offers the casual tourist unlimited possibilities.