Innsbruck

Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol, 109 miles by rail S. of Munich, stands on the Inn at its junction with the Sill, 1880 feet above sea-level, surrounded and overhung by mountains ranging from 7500 to 8500 feet high. It is a beautiful place, with broad tree-shaded streets, arched shops, and four squares adorned with statues. The Franciscan church, or Hofkirche, built in the Renaissance style in 1553-63, contains a beautiful and elaborate monument to the Emperor Maximilian I. (who, however, is buried in Vienna). It consists of a marble sarcophagus supporting the emperor's effigy in bronze, in a kneeling posture; while on both sides of the aisle are twenty-eight bronze figures of royal (mostly Hapsburg) personages, by Peter Vischer and other German artists. In the same church are monuments to Andreas Hofer and his comrades Speckbacher and Haspinger, and to the Tyrolese who fell in the wars against France (1796-1809). The parish church of St James has a picture of the Virgin by Lucas Cranach. The other chief buildings are the imperial castle, built by Maximilian I. and restored by Maria Theresa in 1766-70; the 'Golden Roof Palace'; the national museum, the Ferdinandeum; and the university (founded in 1677, and, after several vicissitudes, organised anew in 1826), which has the usual four faculties and upwards of 800 students and 100 professors and lecturers. To the university are attached a library of 92,000 volumes, a botanical garden especially rich in Alpine flora, and the usual museums, laboratories, &c. Amongst the eight monasteries of Innsbruck is the first that the Capuchins founded in Germany (1594). Innsbruck carries on manufactures of woollen cloth, machines, and glass, and glass-painting. It is much visited by tourists in the summer. Pop. (1890) 23,320; or, including the suburbs of Hötting and Wilten, 35,800. Innsbruck has always been a place of some commercial importance, owing to its situation at the ford across the Inn and at the head of the Brenner Pass to Italy. The Romans had here their principal colony in Rhaetia. From 1180 the town belonged to the Counts of Meran; in 1363 it passed with Tyrol to Austria. The stormiest period of its history fell in the days of Hofer (q.v.). See Gwercher, Innsbruck und dessen Umgebung (1880).