The recipient, Wolfang Rangger, who lost his right leg in 2007, said: "It feels like I have a foot again.  It's like a second lease of life."
Prof Hubert Egger of the University of Linz, said sensors fitted to the sole of the artificial foot, stimulated nerves at the base of the stump.
He added it was the first time that a leg amputee had been fitted with a sensory-enhanced prosthesis.
Surgeons first rewired nerve endings in the patient's stump to place them close to the skin surface.
Six sensors were fitted to the base of the foot, to measure the pressure of heel, toe and foot movement.
These signals were relayed to a micro-controller which relayed them to stimulators inside the shaft where it touched the base of the stump.
These vibrated, stimulating the nerve endings under the skin, which relayed the signals to the brain.
Prof Egger said: "The sensors tell the brain there is a foot and the wearer has the impression that it rolls off the ground when he walks."
Wolfgang Ranger, a former teacher, who lost his leg after a blood clot caused by a stroke, has been testing the device for six months, both in the lab and at home.
He said:  "I no longer slip on ice and I can tell whether I walk on gravel, concrete, grass or sand.  I can even feel small stones."
The 54-year-old also runs, cycles and goes climbing.
Another major benefit was a reduction in excruciating "phantom limb" pain felt by Mr Rangger for years following the amputation.
Prof Egger said the brain now received real data rather than searching for information from the missing limb.
The Austrian research team unveiled their results at a press conference in Vienna.
But they have yet to publish details in a medical journal.
Last year an international team created a bionic hand which allows the amputee to feel sensations from their fingers.
Their study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Dr Alastair Ritchie, lecturer in Biomaterials and Bioengineering, University of Nottingham, said the Austrian announcement was exciting but not as groundbreaking as the work already done for the arm and hand.

Last month's blast at Wood Treatment Ltd reduced the Bosley mill to rubble.
Will Barks, Derek Moore and Dorothy Bailey were identified as victims, but Jason Shingler, 38, remains missing.
While Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service say they have now handed the investigation over to police, a search and rescue team will stay at the site.
Small fires were still burning at the site until last week, but a fire service spokesman said these have now been extinguished.
He added that crews would return to the area if any hidden or smouldering fires were uncovered.
Temperatures reached 1,000C in the blast and it was described by rescue workers as the "worst incident of its kind" in a decade.
The Bosley Disaster Appeal Fund has raised more than Â£53,000 for the families of the victims and workers left without jobs.
In a statement last week the mill's owners said they "could not predict" when the factory would be operational again.
An investigation into the cause of the explosion continues.
Scientists in Austria have created an artificial leg which allows the amputee to feel lifelike sensations from their foot.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Firefighters have left the site of the Cheshire wood flour mill which was destroyed in an explosion that left three people dead and a fourth missing.