From top, left to right: Bürgerstraße, Conradstraße, view of Innsbruck,St. Anne's Column in Maria-Theresien-Straße, Stift Wilten,Ambras Castle, Altes Landhaus
The earliest traces suggest initial inhabitation in the earlyStone Age. Survivingpre-Roman place names show that the area has been populated continuously. In the 4th century theRomans established the army station Veldidena (the name survives in today's urban district Wilten) atOenipons (Innsbruck), to protect the economically important commercial road fromVerona-Brenner-Augsburg in their province ofRaetia.
The first mention of Innsbruck dates back to the nameOeni Pontum orOeni Pons which isLatin for bridge (pons) over the Inn (Oenus), which was an important crossing point over the Inn river. The Counts ofAndechs acquired the town in 1180.[4] In 1248 the town passed into the hands of theCounts of Tyrol.[5] The city's arms show a bird's-eye view of the Inn bridge, a design used since 1267. The route over theBrenner Pass was then a major transport and communications link between the north and the south of Europe, and the easiest route across theAlps. It was part of theVia Imperii, a medieval imperial road under special protection of the king. The revenues generated by serving as a transit station on this route enabled the city to flourish.
View of Innsbruck byAlbrecht Dürer, 1495 (from the North)
Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429 and in the 15th century the city became a centre of European politics and culture as EmperorMaximilian I also resided in Innsbruck in the 1490s. The city benefited from the emperor's presence as can be seen for example in theHofkirche. Here a funeral monument for Maximilian was planned and erected partly by his successors. The ensemble with acenotaph and the bronze statues of real and mythical ancestors of theHabsburg emperor are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck. A regular postal service between Innsbruck andMechelen was established in 1490 by theThurn-und-Taxis-Post.
In 1564Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria received the rulership overTyrol and otherFurther Austrian possessions administered from Innsbruck up to the 18th century. He hadSchloss Ambras built and arranged there his unique Renaissance collections nowadays mainly part of Vienna'sKunsthistorisches Museum. Up to 1665 astirps of the Habsburg dynasty ruled in Innsbruck with an independent court. In the 1620s the first opera house north of the Alps was erected in Innsbruck (Dogana).
The university was founded in 1669. Also as a compensation for the court as EmperorLeopold I again reigned from Vienna and the Tyrolean stirps of the Habsburg dynasty had ended in 1665.[clarification needed]
Andreas Hofer with his Consultants at the Hofburg byFranz Defregger, 1879
During theNapoleonic Wars Tyrol was ceded toBavaria, ally of France.Andreas Hofer led a Tyrolean peasant army to victory in theBattles of Bergisel against the combined Bavarian and French forces, and then made Innsbruck the centre of his administration. The combined army later overran the Tyroleanmilitia army and until 1814 Innsbruck was part of Bavaria. After theVienna Congress Austrian rule was restored. Until 1918, the town (one of the 4 autonomous towns in Tyrol) was part of theAustrian monarchy (Austria side after thecompromise of 1867), head of the district of the same name, one of the 21Bezirkshauptmannschaften in theTyrol province.[6]
The Tyrolean heroAndreas Hofer was executed in Mantua; his remains were returned to Innsbruck in 1823 and interred in the Franciscan church.
Innsbruck played a part during therevolution of 1848 in Austria. In May of that year, riots in Vienna made EmperorFerdinand to move the seat of government temporarily to that city.
During World War I, the only recorded action taking place in Innsbruck was near the end of the war. On 20 February 1918, Allied planes flying out of Italy raided Innsbruck, causing casualties among the Austrian troops there. No damage to the town is recorded.[7] In November 1918 Innsbruck and all Tyrol were occupied by the 20 to 22 thousand soldiers of the III Corps of the First Italian Army.[8]
In 1996, the European Union approved further cultural and economic integration between the Austrian province ofTyrol and the Italian autonomous provinces ofSouth Tyrol andTrentino by recognizing the creation of theEuroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino.
Innsbruck has ahumid continental climate (KöppenDfb) using 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm oroceanic climate (Cfb) using the original −3 °C (27 °F) isotherm[10] since it has larger annual temperature differences than most of Central Europe due to its location in the centre of the Continent and its position around mountainous terrains. Winters are often very cold (colder than those of most major European cities) and snowy, although thefoehn wind sometimes brings pronounced thaws.
Spring is brief; days start to get warm, often over 15 °C (59 °F), but nights remain cool or even freezing.
Summer is highly variable and unpredictable. Days can be cool 17 °C (63 °F) and rainy, or sunny and extremely hot, sometimes hitting 34 °C (93 °F). In summer, as expected for an alpine-influenced climate, thediurnal temperature variation is often very high as nights usually remain cool, being 12 °C (54 °F) on average, but sometimes dipping as low as 6 °C (43 °F).
Cadastral settlements (red) and wards (grey) of Innsbruck
Innsbruck is divided into nine boroughs (cadastral settlements) that were formed from previously independent municipalities or villages.[20] These nine boroughs are further divided into twenty wards (cadastral districts). All wards are within one borough, except for the ward of Hungerburg (Upper Innsbruck), which is divided between two. For statistical purposes, Innsbruck is further divided into forty-two statistical units (Statistischer Bezirk) and 178 numbered blocks (Zählsprengel).[21]
The following are the nine boroughs with the population as of 31 October 2011:[22]
Innsbruck (inner city) (18.524), consisting of Oldtown (Altstadt), Dreiheiligen-Schlachthof, and Saggen
Wilten (15.772), consisting of Mentlberg, Sieglanger, and Wilten West
Pradl (30.890), consisting of Pradler-Saggen, Reichenau, and Tivoli
Hötting (31.246), consisting of Höttinger Au, Hötting West, Sadrach, Allerheiligen, Kranebitten, and part of Hungerburg
Mühlau (4.750), consisting of part of Hungerburg
Amras (5.403), consisting of Roßau
Arzl (10.293), consisting of Neuarzl and Olympisches Dorf
Towel Day Innsbruck − Towels with a silkscreen print as homage to Douglas Adams. Next to the words 'DON'T PANIC' there are theGPS data from the city Innsbruck where Adams had the idea for theHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[23]
Innsbruck is a very populartourist destination, organizing the following events every year:
Innsbrucker Tanzsommer
Bergsilvester (New Year's Eve)
Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik (Innsbruck Festival of Early Music)
In 1971, authorDouglas Adams was inspired to write the internationally successfulThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series while lying intoxicated in a field in Innsbruck.[25] From 2003 onwards each yearTowel Day is celebrated worldwide on 25 May.
Due to its location between high mountains, Innsbruck serves as an ideal place forskiing in winter,ski-jumping andmountaineering in summer. There are severalski resorts around Innsbruck, with theNordkette served by a cable car and additional chair lifts further up. Other ski resorts nearby includeAxamer Lizum,Muttereralm,Patscherkofel, Igls,Seefeld,Tulfes andStubai Valley. The glaciated terrain in the latter makes skiing possible even in summer months.
TheWinter Olympic Games were held in Innsbruck twice, first in1964, then again in1976, whenColorado voters rejected a bond referendum in 1972 to finance theDenver games, originally awarded in 1970. The1976 Winter Olympics were the last games held in the German-speakingAlps (Austria, Germany, or Switzerland).
Innsbruck is part of theAustro-Bavarian region ofdialects and, more specifically,Southern Bavarian (Südbairisch).[28] Irina Windhaber, professor for linguistics at the Universität Innsbruck, has observed a trend among young people to choose more often Standard German language structures and pronunciation.[29]
Innsbruck is a substantial tourist centre, with more than a million overnight stays.
In Innsbruck, there are 86,186 employees and about 12,038 employers. 7,598 people are self-employed.[30] Nearly 35,000 people commute every day into Innsbruck from the surrounding communities in the area. The unemployment rate for the year 2012 was 4.2%.[31]
The national statistics office,Statistik Austria, does not produce economic data for the City of Innsbruck alone, but on aggregate level with theInnsbruck-Land District summarized as NUTS 3-region Innsbruck. In 2013, GDP per capita in the NUTS 3-region Innsbruck was €41,400 which is around 60% above the EU average.[32]
The headquarters ofTiroler Wasserkraft (Tiwag, energy production),Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg (financial services), Tiroler Versicherung (insurance) andMED-EL (medical devices) are located in Innsbruck. The headquarters ofSwarovski (glass), Felder Group (mechanical engineering) and Swarco (traffic technology) are located within 20 km (12 mi) from the city.
Residential property is very expensive by national standards. The average price per square meter in Innsbruck is €4,430 (2015), which is the second highest per square meter price among Austrian cities surpassed only by Salzburg (€4,823), but followed by Vienna (€3,980).[33]
Innsbruck is located along the A12/A13 highway corridor (Inn Valley Autobahn andBrenner Autobahn respectively), providing freeway access toVerona, Italy andMunich, Germany. The A12 and A13 converge near Innsbruck, at which point the A13 terminates.
Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, the most important railway station of Innsbruck and Tyrol, is one of the busiest railway stations in Austria. It is served by theLower Inn Valley line to Germany and eastern Austria, theArlberg line to the west and theBrenner line, which connects northern Italy with southern Germany via theBrenner Pass. Since December 2007 suburban services have been operated as theInnsbruck S-Bahn.
Innsbruck Airport is located in the suburb of Kranebitten, which is located in the west of the city. It provides services to airports includingFrankfurt,London,Amsterdam andVienna. It also handles regional flights around theAlps, as well as seasonal flights to other destinations. During the winter, activity increases significantly, due to the high number of skiers travelling to the region. The airport is approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the centre of Innsbruck.
Trambahn in Innsbruck
Local public transport is provided by Innsbrucker Verkehrsbetriebe (IVB), a public authority operating a network of bus andtram routes. The metre-gaugetram network consists of four city lines, 1, 2, 3 and 5, and two lines serving the surrounding area:line 6, the Innsbrucker Mittelgebirgsbahn to Igls, and lineSTB, theStubaitalbahn running through theStubai Valley toFulpmes. The network is planned to be enlarged during the coming years to reach the neighboring village Rum in the east andVöls in the west. Numerous bus lines serve the inner city and connect it with surrounding areas. Until 2007 the bus network included twotrolleybus routes, but these were abandoned in preparation for planned expansion of the tram network.
In December 2007, theHungerburgbahn, afunicular service to the district of Hungerburg, was reopened after a two-year closure for extensive rebuilding, with partial realignment and a new extension under theInn River and into central Innsbruck. The line was also equipped with new vehicles. Because of the unique design of the stations, drafted by the famous architectZaha Hadid, the funicular evolves immediately to a new emblem of the city.[34] The line was rebuilt by the Italian company Leitner, and can now carry up to 1,200 persons per hour.[35] It is operated by a private company, the 'Innsbrucker Nordkettenbahnen'.
Innsbruck is a university city, with several locally based colleges and universities.
Innsbruck is home to the oldest grammar school(Gymnasium) of Western Austria, the "Akademisches Gymnasium Innsbruck". The school was founded in 1562 by theJesuit order and was the precursor of the university, founded in 1669.
The international headquarters ofMED-EL, one of the largest producers ofcochlear implants, is located in Innsbruck.
TheAouda.X space suit simulator is being developed by theOeWF in Innsbruck. Also, the Mission Support Centre for many of the OeWF Marsanalogue missions is situated in the city. This MSC used time delayed communication withCampWeyprecht in the desert nearErfoud,Morocco for the MARS2013 expedition during February 2013.
Otto Hofmann (1896–1982),SS-Obergruppenführer director of Nazi Germany's "Race and Settlement Main Office", sentenced to 25 years for war crimes in 1948, pardoned 1954
Otmar Suitner (1922–2010) conductor who spent most of his professional career in East Germany, Principal Conductor of theStaatskapelle Dresden from 1960 to 1964
Wolfgang Scheffler (born 1956), inventor/promoter of large, flexible, parabolic reflecting dishes that concentrate sunlight for cooking and in the world's first solar-powered crematorium
^Martin Bitschnau, Hannes Obermair (2012),Tiroler Urkundenbuch, II. Abteilung: Die Urkunden zur Geschichte des Inn-, Eisack- und Pustertals. Vol. 2: 1140–1200 (in German), Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner, pp. 281ff, no. 758,ISBN978-3-7030-0485-8
^Chizzali.Tyrol: Impressions of Tyrol. (Innsbruck: Alpina Printers and Publishers), p. 5.
^Wilhelm Klein (1967),Die postalischen Abstempelungen auf den österreichischen Postwertzeichen-Ausgaben 1867, 1883 und 1890.
^Reynolds, Churchill, et al.The Story of the Great War, vol. 14. (New York: Collier and Son, 1919)
^Megargee, Geoffrey P. (2009).The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume I. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 484–485.ISBN978-0-253-35328-3.
^友好・姉妹都市.Omachi City Hall (in Japanese). Omachi Municipal Office. Archived fromthe original on 17 August 2014. Retrieved17 August 2014.
^"Kraków – Miasta Partnerskie" [Kraków -Partnership Cities].Miejska Platforma Internetowa Magiczny Kraków (in Polish). Archived fromthe original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved10 August 2013.
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