  We present a review of the description of hadron properties along an
invariant mass operator in the point form of Poincar\'e-invariant relativistic
dynamics. The quark-quark interaction is furnished by a linear confinement,
consistent with the QCD string tension, and a hyperfine interaction derived
from Goldstone-boson exchange. The main advantage of the point-form approach is
the possibility of calculating manifestly covariant observables, since the
generators of Lorentz transformations remain interaction-free. We discuss the
static properties of the mass-operator eigenstates, such as the invariant mass
spectra of light- and heavy-flavor baryons, the characteristics of the
eigenstates in terms of their spin, flavor, and spatial dependences as well as
their classification into spin-flavor multiplets. Regarding dynamical
observables we address the electroweak structures of the nucleon and hyperon
ground states, including their electric radii, magnetic moments as well as
axial charges, and in addition a recently derived microscopic description of
the $\pi NN$ as well as $\pi N\Delta$ interaction vertices. Except for hadronic
resonance decays, which are not addressed here due to space limitations, all of
these observables are obtained in good agreement with existing phenomenology.
Relativistic (boost) effects are generally sizable. We conclude that low-energy
hadrons can be well described by an effective theory with a finite number of
degrees of freedom, as long as the symmetries of low-energy quantum
chromodynamics (spontaneously broken chiral symmetry) as well as special
relativity (Poincar\'e invariance) are properly taken into account. The latter
requirement is particularly well and efficiently met in the point-form
approach.
