Explore Austin

The Harry Ransom Center is the archive, library and museum of the University of Texas at Austin, founded in 1957 and in its present building since 1972. Its galleries show changing exhibitions drawn from manuscripts, rare books, photographs and art, and the lobby displays a Gutenberg Bible and Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, the oldest surviving camera photograph.

The Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin houses the Texas Legislature and the office of the Governor. Designed by Elijah E. Myers in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, it was built of red granite between 1882 and 1888 and is 92 metres tall to the top of its dome; visitors can walk through the rotunda, see the chambers and take guided tours.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Austin, two blocks east of Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. The Gothic Revival church was designed by the Irish-born architect Nicholas J. Clayton, finished in 1874, given its towers and spires in 1907 and made a cathedral in 1948; inside are tree-like columns with carved capitals and stained glass.

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge carries Congress Avenue over Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin. The concrete arch bridge opened in 1910 and was rebuilt in 1980; gaps under its deck house a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that, from spring to autumn, fly out at dusk while people watch from the bridge, the banks and boats.

Lady Bird Lake is a reservoir on the Colorado River through central Austin, created in 1960 as a cooling pond for a city power plant and called Town Lake until 2007, when it was renamed after the former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. A hike-and-bike trail runs along its shores, and most motorboats are banned, so the water is used for kayaking, paddleboarding and rowing.

Zilker Park is a city park of more than 140 hectares in south Austin, where Barton Creek meets Lady Bird Lake. It is named after Andrew Jackson Zilker, who handed the land to the city in stages from 1917, and was laid out in the 1930s; it includes Barton Springs Pool, the Zilker Botanical Garden, a nature and science centre and lawns used for festivals.