Location: Tyrol
The alpine metropolis of Innsbruck lies on the Inn
and is the capital of the Austrian state of Tyrol. With around
120,000 inhabitants, it is the fifth largest city in Austria.
In administrative terms, Innsbruck is divided into nine
cadastral municipalities (city districts). These are the city center
(Altstadt, Dreiheiligen, Saggen, St. Nikolaus and Mariahilf), Wilten
(Mentlberg, Sieglanger, Wilten West), Pradl (Pradler-Saggen,
Reichenau, Tivoli), Hötting (Höttinger Au, Hötting West, Hungerburg,
Sadrach , All Saints' Day and Kranebitten), Mühlau (Hungerburg,
Hoch-Innsbruck), Amras with the Roßau, Arzl (Neuarzl and Olympic
Village), Vill and Igls.
The Hungerburg district, also
Hoch-Innsbruck and located on a plateau north of the center, is an
exception to two cadastral communities, the name is attributed to a
poor snack station.
Neighboring communities of the city are
Rum, Thaur, Ampass, Aldrans, Lans, Patsch, Mutters, Natters,
Götzens, Völs, Kematen, Zirl and Scharnitz (a little further away).
The special feature of the climatically favorable situation of the mountain town Innsbruck is due to the location between the surrounding mountain ranges and in the wide trough valley of the Inn; the flat valley floor is graveled up to 200 meters by the river: to the north and against the Atlantic lows that come from here, Innsbruck is protected by the striking and closed north chain of the Karwendel with the Hafelekar, to the south with the valley opening of the Wipptal between the somewhat gentler ones Tux Alps with the Patscherkofel and the Stubai Alps, the valley is open to the sun and the warm southern foehn: the Inn Valley is a dry valley.
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum
By plane
Innsbruck has an international airport in the west of
the city, Innsbruck Airport (IATA Code: INN). There are regular
flights from Frankfurt am Main, Amsterdam, Vienna, Graz, Hanover and
London, and there are also charter flights from several European
regions, especially in winter.
During the day, bus line F
runs from the airport every 15 minutes to the main station and the
city center.
By train
Innsbruck's main train station is
the city's most important train station. It is located east of the
city center on Südtiroler Platz, from where the city center and the
old town are easy to reach. In the urban area are also the
Westbahnhof, the Hötting train station and the stations
Allerheiligenhöfe and Kranebitten. There are international train
connections from Zurich several times a day, from Munich and Vienna
every 2 hours and from Verona / Bozen. (OEBB.at)
The ÖBB also
offers some night train lines that run through Innsbruck or have as
an end point. On some, it is also possible to transport a car.
By bus
The bus station is located directly at the main train
station. From here regional buses run to parts of the Upper and
Lower Inn Valley, to the Seefeld Plateau, to the Wipptal and
individual courses also to the Ötz and Zillertal. Long-distance
buses from Germany to Innsbruck (Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen -
Innsbruck) have been running since 2014. At € 11 they are an
alternative to train travel.
By street
Innsbruck can be
reached by road via the Inntal motorway A12, which runs in a
west-east direction (Kufstein - Innsbruck - Zams) through Tyrol and
from the south via the Brenner motorway A13. In Austria, all
motorways are subject to tolls (vignette - sticker!), The Brenner
motorway costs an additional € 9.50 for cars per direction (4/2019).
From the north (D) it is also possible to travel to Innsbruck
toll-free via the Garmisch area (A95 from Munich) via the Zirlerberg
and then via the B171 to Innsbruck. The route from Munich is even a
little shorter than the motorway route via Kufstein, but there is
also a lot of rush hour traffic, especially on weekdays.
If
possible, you should avoid driving around the city center of
Innsbruck, the parking situation in the city is extremely bad: Free
parking spaces are expensive short-term parking zones in large parts
of the city. Most of the city center is also a paid short-term
parking zone (half an hour € 0.70); the old town itself is largely a
pedestrian zone or traffic-calmed.
If it cannot be avoided,
there are garages and multi-storey car parks near the center. The
multi-storey car parks are also expensive (approx. € 2.50 per hour,
no time graduation), so the costs for a stay of several hours can
quickly reach double digits. In addition, the parking space for the
cars is also very well used, the parking garages are pretty tight.
It is therefore advisable for longer visits to park the car
outside and take public transport into the city.
Around the city
Local public transport is organized by the Innsbrucker
Verkehrsbetriebe, the Innbus and the Verkehrsverbund Tirol as well
as some private companies.
Train
A regional train system
similar to the S-Bahn (Tirol Takt) connects Innsbruck with its
eastern, western, southern and northwestern suburbs. In the city
area, next to the main train station, there is the Westbahnhof and
the stations Hötting, Allerheiligenhöfe and Kranebitten. Inner-city
VVT tickets are also valid within this area.
tram
Innsbruck has a tram network that partially extends into the
surrounding area (called tram in Innsbruck), but no subway. The two
railways to the surrounding area (line STB to Fulpmes and line 6 to
Igls) are very scenic. Line 3 connects the Amras district with the
Höttinger Au. Line 1 to the Mühlau district with Wilten. The main
transfer hubs are the main train station and the market square. Time
and multi-trip tickets can either be bought in tobacconists
(kiosks), at machines or (only single trips) directly from the
driver. On the tram line to Fulpmes you can also get discounted
tickets with the ÖBB half-price pass. A limited number of bicycles
can be taken on all urban lines.
By bus
There is an
extensive bus network. Caution is advised with the line names, as
many bus lines divide into several branches with sometimes
completely different destinations, which were once independent
lines. It is advisable to always pay attention to the destination
information, the stop displays and the automatic announcements in
the vehicles. The TS bus line can be used with a special ticket and
connects the city center with the sights of Ambras Castle, Bergisel
and Alpenzoo. Use is free with the Innsbruck Card.
Night bus
network
The night bus routes NL1, NL2, NL3, NL4, NL5, NL10,
NL10a, NL11, NL12 and NL13 connect almost all parts of the city and
many surrounding communities every hour between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Lines NL1 to NL3 run seven days a week, NL4 to NL13 only on Friday
and Saturday nights and on the nights before public holidays. Normal
core zone tickets, including time tickets, are valid for all night
lines in the city. There are special tariffs outside the core zone.
ASTI (collective call taxis) operate in the unused districts and
surrounding communities. The central night bus hub is the main train
station.
Regional bus network
Regional bus routes serve
all surrounding communities and suburbs. The regional bus node is
the bus station at the main train station.
cable railway
The valley station of the funicular to the Hungerburg is near the
old town at the congress, see also the mountain railways section
below.
By bicycle
A relatively large number of cycle paths
and cycle lanes as well as numerous bicycle parking facilities make
bicycles the ideal means of transport of choice for shorter
distances in the city.
The city bike rental system, which is
operated by the transport company, has existed since 2014. This
requires registration with a credit card via or directly at the
machine on site. The rental costs € 1.00 for the first half hour, €
2.00 for the next half hour and € 3.00 for each additional hour. The
locations are shown below.
Fiaker
There is also the
possibility of exploring the city in proper style in a horse-drawn
carriage. The location of the horse-drawn carriages is the
Europaratsallee between the State Theater and the Congress.
Fiakerei Gritscher, Eggenwaldweg 50, 6020 Innsbruck phone = +43 (0)
512 264885.
www.fiaker.co.at/
(Fiaker agency for all of Austria). Tel .: +43 (0) 1966 02 61.
Traces of settlement in the Innsbruck city area can be traced back to
the Neolithic Age. Pre-Roman place names and urn burial grounds in
Wilten, Amras, Hötting and Mühlau as well as finds from the Latène
period on Adolf-Pichler-Platz in the city center show that the Innsbruck
Basin has been continuously inhabited for more than 3000 years.
In the course of border security in the north and the conquest of the
Rhaetians and Noricians, the Romans under Emperor Augustus laid the road
around 15 BC to protect the Verona - Brenner - Augsburg imperial road.
the military station Veldidena (Wilten), which existed until late
antiquity and was only destroyed around 600.
After the fall of
the Western Roman Empire, the area initially came under Bavarian
sovereignty before it was absorbed by the incorporation of the Bavarian
duchy into the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne in 788. In the following
centuries, the area around Innsbruck again became part of the newly
founded Duchy of Bavaria and was later under the rule of the Counts of
Andechs before it was merged into the County of Tyrol.
In church
terms, Innsbruck and the Inn Valley had belonged to the diocese of
Brixen since the early Middle Ages, which was sometimes expressed in
documents as "stat Jnnsprugg Brichsner bistumbs". This affiliation,
which lasted more than a millennium, only ended with the division of
Tyrol as a result of the First World War.
In 2016, during canal
construction work, the stone bridgehead of a medieval bridge was
discovered as the oldest archaeological relic.
High Middle Ages
In 1133, the Counts of Andechs built a market on the left bank of the
Inn (today St. Nikolaus), which was connected to the other bank of the
Inn by Count Berchtold V of Andechs in the 1170s via the old Inn bridge.
In 1180, the people of Andechs also acquired a plot of land on the
southern bank of the Inn from Wilten Abbey through a barter agreement.
The "Insprugk", which was first mentioned in a document this year and
was given market rights in 1187, developed from this fortified market
and trading place. The Latin name of Innsbruck Oeni Pons or Oenipontum
(from oenus inn and pons bridge) is due to this.
Between 1187 and
1205, the market finally received municipal rights, which brought
influence and wealth through customs revenue, since all East Alpine
trade via the Brenner Pass to Italy now made its way through Innsbruck
and over the Inn Bridge. In 1239 the existing town charter was confirmed
and extended. After the death of the last Count of Andechs Otto VIII in
1248, the area came into the possession of the Counts of Tyrol in the
same year, who were endowed with the dukedom in 1286 by Rudolf von
Habsburg.
Late middle ages
The city seal and coat of arms show
a bird's-eye view of the Inn Bridge and were used from 1267.
Another barter agreement with the Wilten Abbey enabled the town to be
expanded to include Neustadt in 1281 (today's Maria-Theresien-Straße
roughly up to Meraner Straße).
The Brenner route (Via Raetia) was
already paved around 1300 and largely passable with wagons, while the
other Alpine crossings such as the Via Claudia Augusta remained
accessible only with pack animals for a long time.
The city
hospital in Neustadt was also built around 1300 and received burial
rights in the so-called Innsbruck hospital cemetery on the adjacent area
around today's Adolf-Pichler-Platz.
In 1363 Margarethe Maultasch,
the last Countess of Tyrol, handed over the country to the Habsburgs -
Innsbruck became Austrian.
Duke Friedrich IV (Frederick with the
empty pocket) made Innsbruck a royal seat in 1420 and had the arcades
and the courtyard garden laid out. The City Tower (1442-1450 attached to
the Old Town Hall built in 1358), the Hofburg (1456), the Golden Roof
(1497/98-1500) and the Ottoburg (1495) were built.
In 1485, at
the instigation of the inquisitor and later author of the witch hammer,
Heinrich Institoris, witch trials took place, which were discontinued in
the same year due to serious procedural defects.
In Albrecht
Dürer's watercolor Innsbruck in the north from 1496, exhibited in the
Albertina (Vienna), which he painted during his trip to Italy, the
Gothic parish church can still be seen, but it was destroyed. It stood
roughly where the Cathedral of St. James stands today.
Early
modern age
During the reign of Maximilian I, who often stayed in the
city with his court, Innsbruck rose to become a political and artistic
center of the empire. In addition to the armory built around 1500, which
was one of the most important armories in Europe at the time, the Golden
Roof and the Gothic foundation walls of the Hofburg, which are still
preserved today, testify to this.
The court church with Maximilian's empty tomb (cenotaph) was built by
Maximilian's grandson Ferdinand I between 1553 and 1563, in which the
"Schwarzen Mander" cast between 1509 and 1550 were placed.
Furthermore, in the course of the Counter-Reformation, at Ferdinand's
instigation, the Jesuits under Petrus Canisius founded a Jesuit college
and a Latin school in 1562, today's Academic Gymnasium, which is the
oldest grammar school in western Austria.
A road from Mühlau to
Hall was built through the Innauen in 1585, which is lined with pillars
that are still preserved today.
The Dogana was built by Leopold V
in 1629-1630 as the first permanent opera house and theater in the
German-speaking world.
The Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs died
out in 1665 with Archduke Sigmund Franz. Although this meant the end of
Innsbruck as a residential city, the Gothic townscape of the old town
was preserved. From 1706 to 1717, Karl Philipp von der Pfalz ruled from
the governors of the Habsburgs in Innsbruck.
Emperor Leopold I
founded the University of Innsbruck with four faculties on October 15,
1669. After being dissolved and reopened twice, the Faculty of
Philosophy and Law were finally reestablished in 1826 by Emperor Franz
I.
In 1806, Innsbruck became the capital of the Bavarian Innkreis
for eight years.
modern
Although the residence of the
sovereign had been in Innsbruck since 1420, the city on the Inn did not
officially succeed Meran as the provincial capital of Tyrol until 1849.
From 1858 the railway ran via Kufstein and Rosenheim to Munich, in
1867 via the Brenner Pass to Bozen (Brenner Railway) and in 1884 via the
Arlberg (Arlberg Railway). As a result, tourism developed rapidly.
20th century
In 1904 Innsbruck was connected to Fulpmes by the
Stubai Valley Railway, and in 1912 to Garmisch-Partenkirchen by the
Mittenwald Railway. Both tracks were planned by Josef Riehl. With the
railway line Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen (it consists of the
Mittenwald railway and the railway line Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen)
Innsbruck received the second railway connection to Munich.
Shortly after the Austro-Hungarian armistice with Italy came into force
on November 4, 1918, Bavarian troops occupied the city on November 7 to
forestall an Italian occupation. After the German armistice was signed
(November 11), they withdrew again. An Italian advance guard arrived in
the city six days later, on November 17, followed by the actual main
contingent on November 23. The Italian occupation, which in the meantime
had up to 22,000 men, lasted until December 1, 1920. The city suffered
no damage from the troops.
In Innsbruck, too, the interwar period
was marked by disputes between political camps. During the Höttinger
Saalschlacht on May 27, 1932, an SA man was stabbed to death.
Innsbruck had been the capital of the Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg since
1938/39, which was formed after the annexation of Austria to the German
Reich. In the November pogrom of 1938, Jewish homes and businesses were
destroyed and the synagogue was vandalized. Four Jews were murdered or
later succumbed to their injuries, many others were seriously injured.
Almost all Tyrolean Jews were then expelled to Vienna.
In the
course of the South Tyrolean option in 1939/43, numerous South Tyroleans
moved into specially built housing estates in Innsbruck, especially in
the Pradl district.
During the Second World War, Innsbruck was
bombed 22 times by the Allies, and on December 16, 1944 the Innsbruck
Cathedral was severely damaged. Most of the Medical and Surgical
University Clinic on Anichstraße was badly damaged by the bombing in
December 1944 and April 1945. The 22 attacks killed 495 people. On May
3, 1945, Innsbruck was handed over to US troops without a fight. Only in
a few Austrian cities did the war end in this way. Gauleiter Franz Hofer
had previously banned any form of resistance in a radio speech.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Innsbruck was part of the
French occupation zone in occupied post-war Austria. A DP camp for
displaced persons was set up by the military administration on the site
of a former military camp.
Innsbruck Airport was reopened on
January 15, 1948 after being relocated from Reichenau to Ulfiswiese in
the Höttinger Au. After the first regular service to Munich in the
Second World War, the first scheduled flights were offered by KLM in
1950.
On July 1, 1983, the first Austrian emergency doctor helicopter
Christophorus 1 was put into service in Innsbruck. The airport plays a
major role in incoming tourism via charter flights, especially in
winter. In summer there are many charter flights, especially to Spain
and Greece.
Innsbruck has twice hosted the Winter Olympics (1964
Winter Olympics and 1976 Winter Olympics) and the Winter Paralympics
(1984 and 1988). Innsbruck was the only city in which the Olympic Games
were held twice within twelve years. In the mid-1990s there were
initiatives to bring the Winter Olympics to Innsbruck for a third time;
In 2006, however, the initiatives were dropped after a referendum. All
Tyrolean districts were in favor, but the residents of Innsbruck were
against.
In 1974, the electric interurban tram to Hall was
discontinued. Innsbruck's former mayor, Alois Lugger, later described
this as the biggest mistake of his tenure.
After South Tyrol was
annexed to Italy, Innsbruck was the base of action for many South
Tyrolean activists in the 1960s and 1970s who tried to separate South
Tyrol from Italy and reunite it with North and East Tyrol in Austria.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II celebrated an open-air mass in the
Bergisel Stadium in Innsbruck.
In 1999, at the world's biggest
snowboard spectacle, the Air & Style Contest in the Bergisel Stadium,
there was a mass crowd, after which six young people died. The stadium
and the ski jump (see below) were rebuilt in 2002. In 1999, the
Innsbruck crematorium in Innsbruck-Amras was the first in the state of
Tyrol to go into operation.
21st century
The medical faculty
of the Leopold Franzens University, one of the four original faculties,
became Innsbruck's second independent university at the beginning of
2004, the Innsbruck Medical University.
In 2005 the Universiade
took place in Innsbruck for the second time. In addition to Vienna,
Innsbruck was also the venue for the Ice Hockey A World Championships
this year.
In 2008, Innsbruck was a venue for the 2008 European
Football Championship, which was organized jointly by Austria and
Switzerland and was the sole host of the Ice Hockey World Championships
(Division I). The city was also one of the venues for the 2010 European
Handball Championship and the 2011 European Volleyball Championship.
At the end of January 2012, the first Winter Youth Olympic Games
took place in the Tyrolean state capital, the Olympic city of 1964 and
1976.
In 2018, the Cycling World Championships were held in
Tyrol, with Innsbruck as the destination in every discipline.
architecture and urban development
In the course of reconstruction
from 1948 and in the run-up to the Olympic Games in 1964 and 1976, new
districts such as Reichenau and the Olympic Village were created.
In 1973 the Kongresshaus, an event and exhibition center with
international dimensions adjacent to the historic old town, was
inaugurated. The client was the Kongresshaus-Bau-GesmbH, the planners
were the architects Marschalek, Ladstätter, Gantar, Prachensky and
Heiss.
The Bergisel ski jump was rebuilt in 2001 based on a
design by the Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
The French architect
Dominique Perrault planned Innsbruck's town hall galleries.
In
2006, the Nordkette cable car, which opened in 1928 and was renamed
Nordpark by the current operators, was reopened after less than two
years of construction. The first Hungerburgbahn, which opened in 1906
and connected the Saggen district with the Hungerburg, was also replaced
by a new building that opened on December 1, 2007. The valley station is
now at the Kongresshaus. The four stations and the bridge over the Inn
were built according to designs by the architect Zaha Hadid.
Planned by David Chipperfield, Kaufhaus Tyrol opened in
Maria-Theresien-Strasse in 2010.
Geographical location
Innsbruck is centrally located in the North
Tyrolean Inn Valley, where the Wipptal branches off south towards the
Brenner Pass, and accordingly where the Inn and Sill meet. A few
kilometers west of Innsbruck, the confluence of the Melach and Inn
between the towns of Unterperfuss and Kematen in Tyrol represents the
dividing line between the western Upper Inn Valley and the eastern Lower
Inn Valley.
The city is bordered on the north by the Nordkette,
the southernmost of the four major mountain ranges in the Karwendel, and
on the south by the foothills of the Alpine central chain
(Patscherkofel).
Urban structure and expansion of the urban area
Innsbruck is divided into nine cadastral communities and localities,
which were formed from formerly independent communities or community
parts. These cadastral communities also form the city districts of
Innsbruck (§ 2 (2) Innsbruck city law).
The cadastral communities
are divided into 20 statistical districts (by the city administration),
42 statistical districts and 178 statistical census districts (for
Austria-wide official statistics). Some of these designations are also
used in general usage, the census districts are simply numbered.
Exceptions are the districts of Hungerburg, Mühlau/Arzl industrial park
and Olympisches Dorf, which are divided into two cadastral communities.