Innsbruck

Innsbruck all inclusive – with the Innsbruck Card the city is all yours. This great value pass is your key to all the city sights, including numerous interesting museums and galleries such as the Imperial Palace, Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum, splendid Ambras Castle, the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum and the Tirol Panorama Museum with its unique giant panoramic painting. With the Innsbruck Card you enjoy free travel on all public transport in the city and as far as Igls and Hall. Furthermore, you are entitled to one return trip on each of the seven cable cars (according to the season) in Innsbruck and the surrounding villages. Also included in the price of your Innsbruck Card is access to the Bergisel ski jump, an unmistakable city landmark well worth visiting all year round. A free shuttle bus service takes you to the glittering Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens. Exploring the town on two wheels is just your thing? Simply pick up a zippy city bike from DIE BÖRSE, a friendly inner city sports store and equipment rental, and you are free to roam the streets of Innsbruck for the next three hours. In addition to all this, you travel free of charge on the ‘Sightseer’ hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus which takes you to Innsbruck’s main points of interest in all comfort. Make sure to take an informative walk through the medieval lanes of the historic Old Town with a knowledgeable ‘Per Pedes’ city guide (tours available in English). Innsbruck Cards are available for a duration of 24, 48 or 72 hours.

The Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens, just 12 km east of Innsbruck, count among Austria’s most visited attractions. Created by the world renowned Tyrolean crystal manufacturer, this unique museum represents a glittering fantasy realm where top artists of international reputation reveal their personal crystalline fables, inviting fasci-nated visitors to immerse themselves in a mesmerizing world of wonders.

At Hungerburg you can board the Nordkettenbahn cable car to continue up to Seegrube (1,905m) and Hafelekar (2,330m), Innsbruck’s popular recreational Nordkette area. Plenty of sunshine and heaps of snow in the winter make it a tempting paradise for skiers, hikers, mountain bikers, hang gliders and paragliders.

Innsbruck’s gothic city tower was built in 1442-1450 as part of the former town hall, it rises 51 metres above the old town. Formerly used by watchmen on the lookout for enemies or fires, it now offers fabulous views of the entire historical city centre and beyond.

It was above all Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) who proved to be a significant patron of the arts by converting Ambras Castle into a splendid Renaissance residence for his wife Philippine Welser. Located on a hill to the south of Innsbruck, Schloss Ambras is still home to extensive collections of art and curiosities which rank until today among Europe’s most beautiful ‘curiosity chambers’.

The court church is situated on the east side of the old town next to the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Habsburg emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) planned an escort of life-size bronze figures, which were designed by prominent artists of his time. The twenty-eight so-called “Schwarze Mander“ (black men) were worked on by painter Albrecht Dürer as well as casters Stefan Godl, Peter Vischer and Peter Löffler, among others. The statues were not completed, however, until Maximilian’s grandson Ferdinand I took over and had this significant piece of Renaissance art displayed in Innsbruck’s Hofkirche.

The old city is enclosed by Marktgraben, Burggraben and Rennweg, marking the boundary along which the city wall once ran. The somewhat younger baroque and classical part of Innsbruck is located outside its perimeter. Here you find Triumphpforte – a triumphal arch built for the marriage of Archduke Leopold (son of Empress Maria Theresia) to Maria Ludovica of Spain in 1765.

Adjacent to the court church you will find the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum which since 1929 has accumulated a fascinating collection of every day objects of rural, urban and aristocratic life in former days, when the Trentino area and the Ladin valleys of the Dolomites were still part of the Tyrol. Following extensive refurbishments in 2009, the collections – which range among the most beautiful and impressive in the Alpine region – can be viewed in new splendour.