Page 247 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

INNSBRUCK  245

The Baroque façade of Altes
Regierungsgebäude (Old
Governmental Building) at No. 3
hides some beautiful rooms
including the Claudia-Saal, the
Hall of Claudia de Medici, with
a late-Renaissance coffered
ceiling. At No. 6 is an old inn,
Der Goldene Adler (Golden
Eagle Inn), and the Katzunghaus
(at No. 16) has interesting 16th-
cen tury reliefs on its oriels.
P Altes Landhaus
Maria-Theresien-Strasse 43.
Tel (0512) 5900. Closed to visitors.
This 18th-century house, built The impressive, two-tiered, 16th-century Schloss Ambras
in 1725–8 by Georg Anton
Gumpp and today the seat of building houses the collection of 12th century it was the seat of
Tyrol’s provincial government, is the Tiroler Landesmuseum (the local rulers.
one of Austria’s most beautiful Tyrol Regional Museum), named The present 16th-century
secular structures. It has an after Archduke Ferdinand II building consists of a lower
attractive inner courtyard and its (1529–95), a Tyrolean ruler and a castle with entrance gate and
colourful elevations were passionate collector. The museum spacious courtyard, and an
embellished by Alessandro has galleries devoted to the upper castle built on the site
Callegari. The niches lining the natural environ ment, history, art of an earlier structure. The two
walls of the monumental internal and handicrafts, and it is also parts are connected by the
staircase are filled with marble home to a library. Among its most early-Renaissance Spanish Hall,
statues and busts of Greek and precious exhibits are Gothic panel built by Giovanni Luchese in
Roman gods. Ceiling frescoes paintings, sculp tures by Michael 1569–72, with original coffered
depict the Tyrolean eagle with Pacher, and works by old German ceiling and inlaid doors.
an open map of the country. and Dutch masters – Lucas Archduke Ferdinand II
The most opulent room is the Cranach the Elder, Rembrandt, established his own museum
Rococo conference hall. Along Pieter Bruegel the Younger and at Ambras, but the exhibits
the same street the Annasäule others. The museum also ended up being dispersed in
(1706) rises in front of the Neues exhibits more recent Austrian various Viennese museums.
Rathaus (new town hall). art, including works by Klimt, Nonetheless, there is still
Schiele and Kokoschka. plenty to see, including the
Rüstkammer (arsenal), the
+ Schloss Ambras Kunst- und Wunderkammer
Schlossstrasse 20. Tel (01) 52524-4802. (chamber of arts and marvels),
Open 10am–5pm daily. Closed 25 Dec. and the gallery with portraits
& ∑ schlossambras-innsbruck.at of members of the Habsburgs
The castle, on the southeastern by famous artists such as
city limits, was once the symbol Lucas Cranach, Peter Paul
of Tyrol’s power and glory. In the Rubens and Diego Velázquez.
Andreas Hofer (1767–1810)
Andreas Hofer is regarded as Austria’s
national hero, widely extolled in its
literature and poetry. In 1809, he led the
Tyrolean uprising against the Bavarian rulers,
Georg Anton Gumpp’s imposing stairwell in who were allied with Napoleon’s forces.
Altes Landhaus He succeeded in beating the Bavarians,
and forced the French army, led by Marshal
E Tiroler Landesmuseum Lefebvre, to retreat from Tyrol after their
Ferdinandeum defeat on Bergisel, a hill just outside
Innsbruck (see p247). Hofer assumed
Museumstrasse 15. Tel (0512) 59489. civilian power in Tyrol, but was soon
Open 9am–5pm Tue–Sun. &7
∑ tiroler-landesmuseum.at betrayed and captured, and
subsequently executed by
Together with the former the French in the town square
armoury of Maximilian I at No. 1 of Mantua.
Zeughausgasse, this 19th-cen tury

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