Tour Audio a Krems an der Donau

A child was buried here 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists found the grave, and it is the oldest known burial site in Austria. By the time Krems appears in written records in 995, in a certificate issued by Emperor Otto III, the settlement had already been a place long enough for the Danube bend and the Krems river confluence to shape a community around them. In the 11th and 12th centuries Krems was large enough to rival Vienna, which is the kind of fact that resets your assumptions about what was important in the medieval world.

The town sits at the eastern end of the Wachau valley, the UNESCO-designated stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems that contains the most dramatic river scenery in Central Europe.

Apricot orchards on the terraced slopes above town produce the fruit that goes into Marillenschnaps, the apricot brandy that distillers here make with something close to religious seriousness. The painter known as Kremser Schmidt worked here through the 18th century, producing altarpieces for churches across Austria in a rococo style of particular warmth. The Steiner Tor, the 1480 city gate, and the Piarist Church stand within the old town's compact medieval grid, and the Kunstmeile Krems museum complex has brought serious contemporary art to the Danube bend without disturbing the older character of the town.