Places to visit in Tyrol

Tyrol consists of two parts of the province that do not touch: North Tyrol with the provincial capital Innsbruck and East Tyrol with Lienz as its centre. North Tyrol follows the Inn, from which valleys such as the Ötztal, the Wipptal and the Zillertal branch off to the south; in the north-west lies the Lechtal in the Außerfern. East Tyrol comprises the uppermost Drava valley and the Isel valley. In the north it is bounded by the High Tauern with the Glockner and Venediger groups, in the south by the Lienz Dolomites and the Carnic Alps. East Tyrol has a share in the Hohe Tauern National Park, which also extends into Carinthian and Salzburg territory.

The name was given by Schloss Tirol near Merano, the ancestral castle of the Counts of Tyrol. In 1363 Margaret of Tyrol transferred her rights to the land to the Habsburg dukes Rudolf IV, Albert III and Leopold III. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, South Tyrol was awarded to Italy in 1919; since then it has lain between North and East Tyrol, which together form the federal province of Tyrol.

In Innsbruck stands the Golden Roof, a late Gothic ornate oriel that was added to the Neuer Hof (‘New Court’) around 1500 on the commission of Maximilian I. In the building a museum is devoted to the life of the emperor. On the edge of the city lies Ambras Castle: Archduke Ferdinand II created a collection here whose Kunst- und Wunderkammer (‘chamber of art and curiosities’) can still be seen at its original location; the castle today belongs to the museum group of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Above the district capital Kufstein, on the Inn, stands the fortress with the Emperor’s Tower and the Heimatmuseum (local history museum).

In Dölsach near Lienz lie the remains of the Roman town of Aguntum, which flourished as Municipium Claudium Aguntum under Emperor Claudius. Among other things an atrium house was excavated, and a museum next to the open-air site shows finds from the everyday life of the town.

On UbiBene you will find the topic ‘Innsbruck’.