Innsbruck & Nordkette

Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol, lies in the Inn valley directly beneath the Nordkette and combines old town with high mountains. From the Goldenes Dachl it takes only about 20 minutes by the Hungerburgbahn and the Nordkette cable cars up to around 2,256 m at the Seegrube. The city twice hosted the Olympic Winter Games (1964 and 1976).

Highlights

• City landmark Goldenes Dachl in the old town
• Nordkette cable cars from the city up to around 2,256 m
• Architecturally striking Hungerburgbahn stations
• Twice an Olympic host (1964, 1976)

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

Innsbruck is the only larger city in the middle of the Alps, situated on the Inn, whose name continues in that of the city, the bridge over the Inn. For centuries it was a residence of the House of Habsburg, and Emperor Maximilian I in particular made it around 1500 into a splendid centre of his empire. He is recalled by the famous Golden Roof, an ornate oriel covered with gilded shingles, from which the emperor once watched the goings-on in the square, and which forms the landmark of the old town to this day.

Directly above the rooftops of the city rises the Nordkette, a steep rampart of the Karwendel range, reachable within a few minutes by cable car and leading straight from the sophisticated city centre into a wild, almost untouched high-mountain world. It is this immediate proximity of urban culture and high-Alpine nature that makes Innsbruck so unmistakable. In the city's Court Church stands, moreover, the magnificent tomb of Maximilian, guarded by larger-than-life bronze figures, the so-called Black Men, one of the most important works of the Renaissance north of the Alps. Twice Innsbruck hosted the Olympic Winter Games, which established its reputation as the capital of alpine sport. Whoever looks down from the height of the Nordkette sees the city lying deep in the valley, framed by the peaks, and understands why Innsbruck is regarded as the gateway to the Tyrolean mountains.