Innsbruck

Innsbruck

The Inn valley has always been very important for its geographical and trafficable favourable position. First settlements date back to the Bronze Age. When the Roman Empire expanded to the North, the valley became an important military transportation route. They built a fortified road stop, Veldidena, which is now Innsbruck's district of Wilten. With the settlements of the Bajuwaren, the area turned Bavarian and was later given to the Bishops of Brixen, who lost more and more control of the area to the native Tyrolean counts. In the year 1187 the name "Innsbrucke", which means Bridge over the River Inn, is first mentioned. Soon they built out Innsbruck as the center of their domain.

In the 15th century the emperor Maximilian I made the city to his center of his new administration-, culture- and finance politics. He erected the "Goldene Dachl" in the core of Innsbruck's now historic center, a renaissance oriole, decorated with gold painted copper shingles. In 1665 Empress Maria Theresia built the Triumph Gate and expanded the "Hofburg", the residence of the Habsburgs in Innsbruck.

Nowadays the architecture of this period still characterises the cityscape.
In 1805 Napoleon's armies defeated Austria and Tyrol was given to the Bavarians. The Tyrolean resistance fighter Andreas Hofer managed to free Tyrol from the German and French troops for a while an in 1814 it was returned to the Austrians. Andreas Hofer is a Tyrolean National hero and a large painted round panorama picture, the "Rundgemälde", was dedicated to his fight on the Mount Isle.

Nowadays Innsbruck, with its 150.000 inhabitants, is, because of its favourable position in the Alps, an international center for winter sports and was the host of the Olympic Winter Games twice, in 1964 and 1976. It is also kind of an unofficial capital for snowboarding in Europe.

German Language School in Innsbruck!