9 Amazing Places You Must Visit in Innsbruck, Austria

Published on Feb. 28, 2012 by Matt van Vuuren

These are the best places to visit in the most gorgeous city in the Austrian Alps, make sure to give the local foods a try as well, their bread and sausages will please your every taste-bud.

I needed a break from snowboarding in Seefeld so I took my Volkswagen Polo for a quick trip to downtown Innsbruck.

Places

1. Goldenes Dachl
The famous golden roof is a landmark of the city
2. Maria Theresien Strasse
Main shopping street with breathtaking view of the Alps
3. River Houses
Amazing colored houses on the opposite side of the river are another landmark of Innsbruck
4. Hofburg
Place of the Habsburg dynasty, one of the notorious rulers of Europe
5. Hofkirche
Church with incredible statues and decor, a must see
6. Schloss Ambras
Transformed from a fortress to a palace on top of a mountain

7. Wilten Basilica
Parish church with incredible detailed decor, another gem
8. Tirol Panorama
Most incredible view of Innsbruck from a little chapel
9. Kaiserjäger Museum
War museum filled with historic weapons and warfare from WW1 and WW2

It is truely a winter paradise city in the middle of the Alps.

colored houses in innsbruck

One of the great places I visited were: the Golden Roof, Maria-Theresien-Strasse, Imperial Palace, Imperial Chruch of Kenotaph Maximilian I, Ambras Castle, Cathedral of St. James and the Basilika Wilten. These places are all highly worth visiting.

Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429 and in the fifteenth century the city became a centre of European politics and culture as emperor Maximilian I also resided in Innsbruck in the 1490s.

beautifully detailed buildings in innsbruck

The city benefited from the emperor's presence as can be seen for example in the so called Hofkirche. Here a funeral monument for Maximilian was planned and erected partly by his successors.

The ensemble with a cenotaph and the bronze statues of real and mythical ancestors of the Habsburgian emperor are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck.

massive world war I rifles at the kaiserjagermuseum

In 1938 Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in the Anschluss. Between 1943 and April 1945, Innsbruck experienced twenty-two bomb attacks and suffered heavy damage. The KZ Innsbruck-Reichenau concentration camp was located here.