The natural anchor of any visit is the place where the Steyr River meets the Enns, two clear alpine rivers that join at a sharp angle right beside the old town. The smaller Steyr drops into the broader Enns over a low cascading weir, and the steady murmur of the water gives the whole centre of town a riverside soundtrack that follows you wherever you walk. A series of footbridges and walkways cross both rivers, and a short stroll along their banks reveals one viewpoint after another, from the painted houses of the lower town reflected in still pools to the steep bluff carrying Lamberg Castle high above the meeting point. For many travellers, the confluence is the single most photographed feature of Steyr and one of the loveliest urban river settings anywhere in Austria.

At the heart of the old town stretches the Town Square (Stadtplatz), a long diamond-shaped space framed by some of the finest historic town houses in Upper Austria. Almost every architectural era of central Europe is represented here, with late-Gothic merchant mansions, Renaissance facades, Baroque additions, and Rococo reworkings standing harmoniously side by side along arcaded ground floors. The square is also home to the Bummerlhaus, a late-Gothic mansion from the late fifteenth century that has become the symbol of the city. Its name comes from a small golden lion above the door, which locals long ago compared to a small dog (called a Bummerl in the regional dialect), and the nickname stuck. Just along the square stands the Sternhaus, where the composer Franz Schubert lodged during his summer visits to Steyr and where, in 1819, he composed parts of his celebrated Trout Quintet.

Adjoining the Stadtplatz to the north, the smaller Greenmarket (Grünmarkt) was once the medieval produce market and remains one of the most atmospheric corners of the old town, with painted facades, narrow lanes, and small open courtyards leading toward the river. Beyond the Greenmarket, steep cobbled lanes climb away from the centre toward the upper part of the city, with overhanging arches, hidden stairways, and small squares appearing at unexpected turns. On the opposite bank of the Steyr River, the Steyrdorf district preserves a quieter, more residential side of the historic core, with painted house fronts, traditional ironworkers' workshops, and the medieval Bürgerspital at Michaelerplatz, dating back to the early fourteenth century. Together, these areas reward an unhurried wander away from the busier main square.

Looking down on the meeting of the rivers from a high terrace stands Lamberg Castle (Schloss Lamberg), the historic seat of power that gave Steyr both its name and its earliest history. The original castle was built here by the Otakar dukes around the year 980 and is first recorded in writing in 985, when it appears as Stirapurhc in the Mondsee documents. From this fortress the wider region took the name Styria, even though the modern Austrian province of that name lies further to the south. The castle passed in 1192 to the Babenbergs and later to the Habsburgs, and after a devastating fire in 1727 it was rebuilt as the Baroque palace standing today, in a graceful pale-pink ensemble of gabled wings around an inner courtyard. The castle's private library still contains over 11,000 books, some of them nearly five centuries old, and several rooms are used through the year for classical concerts and cultural events. A footpath through the small castle park, lined with old trees and ornamental statues, links the upper terrace to the old town below.

At the lower end of the bridge that crosses the Steyr River, the twin towers of St Michael's Church (Michaelerkirche) rise above the rooftops in one of the most distinctive silhouettes in the city. The church was built between 1635 and 1677 as a Jesuit foundation, with its towers later raised between 1766 and 1770 to give the building its current proportions. The exterior is restrained, but the upper gable carries a dramatic fresco of the Archangel Michael casting down the fallen angels, and the interior opens into a richly decorated Rococo space with finely worked stucco, side chapels, and a high altar painting of Michael triumphing over Lucifer. The church served as a Jesuit college until the order's suppression in 1773 and became a parish church in 1785 under the reforms of Emperor Joseph II. Standing at the meeting of the two rivers, with the water rushing past its foundations, it remains one of the most quietly memorable Baroque interiors in Upper Austria.

Steyr's long history is gathered under one roof at the City Museum (Stadtmuseum Steyr), set inside the Innerberger Stadel, a Renaissance double-gabled granary from around 1612 with an elaborate sgraffito facade at the northern end of the Greenmarket. Inside, the museum traces over a thousand years of city history, with a focus on nineteenth-century civic life and a multimedia exhibition on the composer Anton Bruckner. In the small square directly in front stands the Citizens' Fountain (Bürgerbrunnen), a modern sculpture created between 1977 and 1979 by the Linz sculptor Maximilian Stockenhuber as a symbol of the shared identity of the people of Steyr. A short walk along the river leads to the Museum of Working Life (Museum Arbeitswelt), set in a converted factory and dedicated to Steyr's long industrial heritage, from the medieval iron trade to modern Austrian names such as BMW Motors, Steyr Automotive, and the famous Steyr tractors.

Steyr's main railway station sits a short ride from the old town, with the Town Square, the Greenmarket, the river confluence, and the foot of Lamberg Castle all reachable on foot or by bike in under fifteen minutes along largely flat, well-signposted streets. The historic centre is mostly pedestrianised and very compact, so most travellers leave their bicycles at their accommodation or at the station and explore on foot. The climb up to Lamberg Castle is easy via either the cobbled lane that winds up beside the Bummerlhaus or the small footpath through the castle park. Bike racks are available at the station for shorter stops. For onward travel, the same ÖBB line connects back toward Linz and the wider Danube region, so Steyr works equally well as a one-day excursion or as an overnight detour from the EuroVelo 6.