Upper Austria, Federal state in northern Austria
Upper Austria is a federal state in northern Austria that lies between Germany and the Czech Republic and covers fifteen districts. The capital Linz sits on the north bank of the Danube and forms the economic and administrative center of this region.
The area belonged to the Roman province of Noricum and later became a crown land of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. After the end of World War I it emerged as a federal state of the new Republic of Austria.
Locals call the region Obaösterreich in their dialect, which differs notably from Viennese German. The name Upper Austria comes from a time when the Danube served as the main reference point and everything upstream was considered "upper".
Anyone traveling through the state finds different landscapes from the flat Alpine foothills to the peaks of the Dachstein mountains in the south. Most towns lie along the Danube or in the river valleys, where the main transport routes are also located.
In the southern part there are seventy-six lakes between mountains that together form the Salzkammergut. This landscape was added to the World Heritage list because of its millennia-old salt production.
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