Innsbruck was the Habsburg empire's capital for a generation under Maximilian I, and the crucible of the 1809 Tyrolean revolt against Napoleon and Bavaria. Three days of imperial tombs, rebellion relics, mining wealth and a 12th-century Romanesque abbey.
Archduke Ferdinand II rebuilt this hilltop castle 1564–1596 for his morganatic wife Philippine Welser. The Chamber of Art and Wonders is the world's oldest museum still in its original building; the Spanish Hall dates to 1571. Open daily 10:00–17:00.
The Premonstratensian abbey was founded in 1138 on the Roman fort of Veldidena, whose 4th-century walls lie beneath the church. The legend of the giant Haymon slaying Thyrsus is carved at the abbey gate; the basilica's rococo interior is by Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer, 1751–55.
Rebuilt 1717–1724 by Johann Jakob Herkomer after the medieval church, it holds Lucas Cranach the Elder's Maria Hilf altarpiece of about 1530 and the tomb of Archduke Maximilian III the Deutschmeister, cast in bronze in 1620. Bombed in 1944, rebuilt by 1950.
Built 1442–1450 beside the old town hall as a fire-watch and prison; the onion dome replaced the Gothic spire in 1560. 148 steps to a viewing gallery at 31m where the watchman lived until 1967. Open daily 10:00–17:00, later in summer.
Built in 2011 to house the 1896 Innsbruck Giant Panorama, a 1,000m² circular painting of the third Bergisel battle of 13 August 1809. The linked Kaiserjäger museum covers the Tyrolean rifle regiments through the 1915–18 Dolomite front.
The 1893 bronze of the innkeeper who led the Tyrolean militia to four victories here in 1809 before being shot at Mantua in February 1810. Around it stand the Kaiserjäger memorial, the Landesgedächtniskapelle and the graves of rifle-company captains.
Founded 1823 as Tyrol's estates museum. Holds the region's Bronze Age and Roman finds, medieval Tyrolean panel painting, and the original relief carvings from the Goldenes Dachl balustrade, moved indoors in the 1950s to stop weathering.
The 1948 Liberation Monument marks the end of French and Allied occupation, standing before the 1938 Nazi-era Neues Landhaus. A 2021 addition names Tyrol's Jewish deportees and the Innsbruck Kristallnacht murders of 9 November 1938.
Forty minutes east by train. In 1500 this mine produced 85% of the world's silver and financed Maximilian I's wars and the Fugger banking empire. A mine train runs 800m into the Sigmund gallery; constant 12°C, helmets and capes provided.
The pastel row on the Inn's left bank is Innsbruck's oldest surviving working district, home to raftsmen, dyers and tanners who used the river. Mariahilf church of 1647 has a Deutschmann high altar; the houses date largely to the 17th and 18th centuries.
Two 16th-century patrician residences on the northern slope, built from mining money. Büchsenhausen was the cannon foundry of Gregor Löffler, who cast Maximilian's Hofkirche bronzes; the Weiherburg of 1460 was Archduke Sigismund's hunting lodge.
The Premonstratensians have brewed on this site since the 1500s; the vaulted cellar under the abbey serves Tyrolean dishes with the abbey's own beer. The giant Haymon's club hangs by the door, a relic of the 12th-century founding legend.