Free Walking Tour Wels: Tower, Square and Castle

Your Wels Walking Tour, Stop by Stop Through the Old Town

1. 1

   Ledererturm

   

   Stand in front of the Ledererturm and look up: 37.7 metres of tower on an almost square plan, four storeys high. On the first three floors you can count two windows each, one facing west and one facing east. The top floor has none of that pattern because it holds the clockwork. Then look at the keystone of the gate arch, where the year 1618 is carved. That date tells you when the tower got the shape you see today.

   It is the last tower of the medieval town fortifications of Wels and today the town's best-known sight. Its name comes from the Lederer, the leather workers who lived in the Middle Ages in what are now Fabrikstraße and Schwimmschulgasse. The tower first appears in the records on 24 July 1326, and not for anything heroic: two Wels householders settled a court dispute over where their rainwater should drain. Bills for building and roof repairs survive from 1474, 1483, 1486 and 1491.

   In 1610 fighting with the soldiers from Passau left the tower so damaged that it threatened to collapse. The Linz master mason Marx Martin Spaz rebuilt it in a project that began in 1616 and finished in 1619. A town fire in 1771 destroyed its onion dome, and the pyramid roof you see now replaced it. A mechanical clock went into the top floor in 1892 and was modernised in 1996.

   The tower nearly vanished like its brothers. The Traunturm fell in 1842, the Fischerturm in 1870 and the Schmidtturm in 1875, all for the sake of traffic. When a demolition request was filed in 1904, residents and people with an eye for art protested, and subsidies from the education ministry and the district authority saved it. Every gate you walk through in Wels now is this one.

   Pass through the arch and you are already on the square: the Stadtplatz Wels starts 80 m, about a minute, away.

   Hours

   Exterior view accessible 24/7 (interior only open for visitors during Welser Weihnachtswelt)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   wels.at ↗

   Location

   Ledererturm on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Stadtplatz Wels

   

   The Stadtplatz is the historic heart of Wels and it is long: roughly 500 metres, closed at one end by the Ledererturm behind you and at the other by the Stadtpfarrkirche Wels. In the Middle Ages a town wall wrapped around it, and at the eastern side stood another gate in the Fischerturm, destroyed by fire in 1870 and then pulled down. Walk it slowly; the whole square is one long marketplace and that is exactly how it grew.

   Its development to today's size probably began in the 13th century, and from the Middle Ages on it hosted markets, mostly for livestock and farm produce. In the 16th century the markets gained weight, thanks to a growing population and above all the booming salt production in the south of the land above the Enns. The forested Salzkammergut had little farming and depended on regular grain deliveries, and those could be organised from the markets in Wels.

   Grain was sold mainly on the Kornmarkt, the middle section of the square where the Hafergasse opens onto it. Around 1553 the stonemason Wolfgang von Hallstatt made the Welser Metzen, a hollow measure holding 75 litres of water, which was set up against the south wall of the municipal inspection house at Stadtplatz 37. For almost two centuries it served as the official measure of the land, so traders across the region were measuring by Wels.

   The weekly markets became even more important in the 19th century, especially from 1886, when local railway lines to Aschach an der Donau, Rohr im Kremstal and later Grünau im Almtal made it easier to bring in people and goods. In August 1961, short of space and squeezed by car traffic, the weekly market moved out to its current grounds at Dr.-Salzmann-Straße and Dragonerstraße.

   Walk the length of the square towards the church at its far end: 320 m, about 4 min.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Stadtplatz Wels on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Stadtpfarrkirche Wels

   

   Before you go in, stop at the west front. The tower's lower storeys are Romanesque; the top and its onion dome came in 1731 and 1732, when mayor Johann Paumgartner had Johann Michael Prunner rebuild the tower and west portal. The town bought a new tower clock and five new bells at the same time, and the receipts survive: the Linz bell founder Silvius Creuz was paid 2000 guilders and 53 kreuzer. Notice the irony after the Ledererturm, which lost its onion dome in a fire while this tower gained one.

   Above the portal stand three stone figures from that rebuild, from left to right Saint Sebastian, Saint Michael and Saint Roch, probably by the Linz sculptor Michael Herstorfer. The portal is Baroque from the outside, but step inside and you can still see the earlier Romanesque west portal. That is the reason to go in, and entry is free.

   This is the oldest church in Wels and one of the oldest in Upper Austria, dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, whose feast falls on 27 December. It is first named on 13 April 888, when King Arnulf gave the chaplain Zazco his fief in Wels as his own property; back then it was a chapel at the core of the gift. For centuries it belonged to the abbey of Kremsmünster. In the 13th century the chapel was pulled down for a Romanesque basilica, which in the 14th century became a three-aisled Gothic church with the rib vaulting you see overhead.

   For the 1000th anniversary in the 19th century the church was renovated partly in neo-Gothic style, still visible on the facade of the nave. A restoration in 1958 took parts of it back towards the original, repainted the main nave, renovated the organ and repaired the ribs in the side aisles.

   Burg Wels is only 220 m away, about 3 min on foot.

   Hours

   Summer: daily 08:00–19:00; Winter: daily 08:00–18:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   stadtpfarre-wels.at ↗

   Location

   Stadtpfarrkirche Wels on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Burg Wels

   

   Burg Wels looks more like a palace than a fortress, and that is the late Gothic rebuild of 1508 to 1514 under Emperor Maximilian I. He liked it enough to stay, and on 12 January 1519 he died here. If you only remember one thing about Wels, it is usually that an emperor's life ended in this building.

   The castle is far older than its look. In 776 it is mentioned as Castrum Uueles together with the settlement of Wels. It began as a wooden structure with palisades and was only built in stone in the 12th or 13th century. At the end of the 12th century it was pledged to the Babenberg duke Leopold VI of Austria, who bought it outright in 1222. When the Babenbergs died out, it passed to the Habsburgs.

   After Maximilian, the owners became less imperial. In 1653 King Ferdinand IV gave the castle to Prince Johann Weikhard von Auersperg. In 1865 the Auerspergs sold it to Ludwig Hinterschweiger, a lard renderer, who added the east wing. Around 1900 it went to the Blaimschein family, and in 1937 the town of Wels bought it.

   Today it houses the Stadtmuseum Wels and the Museum der Heimatvertriebenen, and admission is charged. Look for the lapidarium on the north wall of the west wing and the west side of the castle garden wall: gravestones and monuments from the 15th to the 19th century, many only in fragments. They came from the parish church you just left and its first churchyard, from the cemetery laid out around 1570 on today's Marktplatz and used until 1888, and from the Minoritenkirche. Go inside if you want the town and its rulers in one place; if time is short, the outside and the story are enough.

   The Minoritenkirche Wels is 340 m away, about 5 min.

   Hours

   Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00, Sat 14:00–17:00, Sun and public holidays 10:00–16:00, Mon closed

   Price

   7.00 EUR full, 5.00 EUR reduced

   Website

   wels.gv.at ↗

   Location

   Burg Wels on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Minoritenkirche Wels

   

   This church stopped being a church in 1784. Founded in the 13th century as a Franciscan, later Minorite, house of worship, it was secularised that year and never returned to parish use. Today it is the archaeology branch of the town museums and an occasional venue for cultural events, so think of it as a museum, not a church: unlike the parish church, entry here costs admission.

   The collection reaches further back in time than anything else on this route. It starts with prehistory, moves on to the Roman chapter, when Wels was called Ovilava, and continues into the early Middle Ages. Some gravestones from this building also ended up in the castle's lapidarium.

   Choose between this and the castle by taste rather than doing both on autopilot. Burg Wels gives you the town and its rulers; the Minoritenkirche shows you what lay in the ground centuries before either existed.

   From here it is 420 m, about 6 min, to the last stop and a jump of many centuries to the Welios Science Center.

   Hours

   Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00, Sat 14:00–17:00, Sun and public holidays 10:00–16:00, Mon closed

   Price

   7.00 EUR full, 5.00 EUR reduced

   Location

   Minoritenkirche Wels on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Welios Science Center

   

   The route ends in the 21st century. The Welios opened on 16 April 2011, and its name joins Wels with Helios, the sun god. Look at the building before you go in: the Linz architects archinauten broke up the facade so daylight reaches deep inside, and the opposite glass fronts shade each other's rooms as a welcome side effect. Lighting is switched by brightness sensors depending on the daylight.

   It was the first building of this size built to a lowest-energy standard, made possible by solid construction, heavily insulated outer walls and an energy concept that was monitored from the start of the project and through detailed planning. The town of Wels and the state of Upper Austria built it; a separate operating company runs it at its own risk.

   Inside, a permanent exhibition of 2,500 m² covers energy efficiency, saving energy and above all renewables: water and hydropower, biomass, solar, wind and geothermal energy, in indoor and outdoor areas. The idea is to experiment yourself with around 150 exhibits rather than read panels. A further 550 m² hosts changing hands-on exhibitions, and school classes get their own programmes and workshops.

   Admission is charged, and it is worth it if you travel with children or enjoy trying things out with your hands; plan around an hour and a half. If you came for medieval Wels only, the facade is a fine full stop to the walk, and the GPS navigation in your browser takes you back to the Ledererturm if you want it.

   Hours

   Tue–Wed 09:00–13:00, Thu–Fri 09:00–17:00, Sat–Sun and holidays 10:00–17:00, Mon closed

   Price

   14.00 EUR full, 11.50 EUR reduced

   Website

   welios.at ↗

   Location

   Welios Science Center on Google Maps ↗

Three Ways to Walk Wels

The route is short, so the real choice is how many doors you go through. Pick by interest and by how much time you want to spend indoors.

Free old town hour

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4

For a first look without tickets: the Ledererturm, the full length of the Stadtplatz, the parish church inside and Burg Wels from the outside. That is 8 min of walking and roughly an hour in total, with no admission to pay.

History in depth

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For history readers: everything in the old town, plus the castle museum and the archaeology collection in the Minoritenkirche. Walking adds up to 13 min; with both museums, expect about three hours. Burg Wels and the Minoritenkirche charge admission.

Families and science fans

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The whole route with 19 min of walking, but you see the castle and the Minoritenkirche from outside and save your energy for the Welios, where children can experiment with the exhibits. Only the Welios charges admission on this plan; allow about three hours.

How Long This Wels Tour Takes, With and Without Museums

Pure walking time is 19 min for 1.4 km, and no leg is longer than 6 min. The time goes into the stops: a few minutes at the tower, a slow walk along the square, a quarter of an hour in the parish church, about an hour and a quarter in Burg Wels, three quarters of an hour with the archaeology in the Minoritenkirche and an hour and a half in the Welios. That adds up to about four and a half hours.

Skip the museums and you are done in roughly an hour. The history plan without the Welios takes about three hours, and so does the family plan that saves the time for the science center.

Before You Set Out in Wels

• Start: The Ledererturm at the western end of the Stadtplatz is the recommended start, but you can join the route at any stop.
• Finish: The tour ends at the Welios Science Center. If you want to return to the old town, the GPS navigation in your browser leads you back to the start.
• Timing: The three ticketed stops keep museum hours and are not open every day, so check them before you set out and start early enough to give the Welios the time it deserves.
• Admission: The Ledererturm, the Stadtplatz Wels and the Stadtpfarrkirche Wels are free. Burg Wels, the Minoritenkirche Wels and the Welios Science Center charge admission, payable at the door.

Common Questions About Wels