Enns claims to be the oldest town in Austria, and it has some evidence. The town received city rights in 1212, but people have lived here since long before that. The Romans built a legionary fortress on this spot, called Lauriacum, in the second century, and it was home to the Second Italic Legion, one of the units that guarded the Danube frontier. The civilian settlement that grew up outside the walls, known as the canabae, held traders, craftsmen and families, and the whole complex became a major provincial centre.
Lauriacum was important in the later Roman period, too. Christianity took hold early here, and a basilica stood on the site of what is now the church of St Laurentius. Tradition associates the area with Saint Florian, a Roman officer who was martyred in the early fourth century and whose name is given to the famous monastery of St Florian not far away. The legion left, the empire shrank, and Enns fell into the hands of Bavarian and Frankish rulers. It became a border town between Upper and Lower Austria, a position that left it with an old defensive character.
Today Enns is a pleasant town of about ten thousand, with a long main square, a city tower built in the sixteenth century, and cafes where people sit and talk. Fuel and food are easy here, so it works well as a stop on a ride through the Danube valley. The river Enns, which comes down from the Alps to join the Danube nearby, is the old boundary and gives the town its name.
The riding between Linz and Enns is gentle and flat, with farmland, small villages and views of the Danube plain. South of Enns the hills begin, and roads head into the foothills of the Alps with a little more interest. The Limes route is a good excuse to explore. In summer the flatlands can be hot and busy, and in autumn the mist settles in the river valleys and the light turns soft. Take time to walk the main square.