Innsbruck | Austria, Map, & History (2024)

Innsbruck, city, capital of Bundesland (federal state) Tirol, western Austria, on the Inn at the mouth of the Sill River in the Eastern Alps. First mentioned in 1180 as a small market town belonging to the Bavarian counts of Andech, it developed rapidly because of its strategic position at the junction of the great trade routes from Italy to Germany via the Brenner Pass and from Switzerland and western Europe. The bridge (Brücke) over the Inn originally carried this traffic and gave the city its name and its insignia. Innsbruck was chartered in 1239, passed to the Habsburgs in 1363, and in 1420 became the capital of Tirol and the ducal residence under Frederick, the duke “of the empty pockets.” Napoleon gave the city to the kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, and during the War of Liberation (1809) four battles were fought around Berg Isel, a hill (2,461 feet [750 metres]) immediately to the south, by Tirolian patriots led by Andreas Hofer against the Bavarians and the French.

The old town has narrow streets lined with medieval houses and arcades. One of the most famous buildings is the Fürstenburg, with a balcony with a gilded copper roof, supposedly built by Duke Frederick and refashioned by the emperor Maximilian in about 1500. Other notable landmarks include the Hofburg (1754–70, on the site of a 15th-century ducal residence) and the Franciscan, or Court, church (1553–63), containing the mausoleum dedicated to Maximilian I and the tombs of Hofer and other Tirolian heroes. The university was founded by Emperor Leopold I in 1677, and its great library was a gift of the empress Maria Theresa in 1745. There are four major museums: the Ferdinandeum, with prehistoric, industrial-art, and natural-history collections and a picture gallery; the Tirolean Folk Art Museum; the Museum of the Imperial Rifles; and parts of the collections of the archduke Ferdinand II, in the Castle Ambras.

Innsbruck is one of the most popular tourist and health resorts and winter-sports centres in central Europe. The Olympic Winter Games were held there in 1964 and 1976. It is a rail and market centre and manufactures textiles (especially loden garments), shoes, beer, and musical instruments; there also is wood- and metalworking as well as food processing. In the late 20th century several companies began producing precision electrical equipment and electronics in the city as well. Pop. (2006) 116,881.