Things to do
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Alpenzoo Innsbruck
The highest zoo in Europe, on the slope above the town, holding only animals of the Alps: bearded vultures, lynx, ibex, wolves and a cold-water aquarium of mountain fish. Enclosures step down the hillside, so the walk is a descent. The first section of the Nordkette lift stops at the gate.
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Annasäule
A red marble column of 1706 in the middle of the main shopping street, raised to mark the day Bavarian troops left Tyrol during the War of the Spanish Succession. Saint Anne stands at the base and the Virgin on top. It is the town's meeting point and frames the mountains at the end of the street.
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Bergiselschanze
Zaha Hadid rebuilt the ski jump above the town in 2002 as a concrete tower with a café at the top, which is open all year and reached by funicular and lift. The Four Hills Tournament competes here each January. Looking down the inrun from the terrace explains the sport better than any broadcast.
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Goldenes Dachl
A balcony roofed with two thousand six hundred and fifty-seven gilded copper tiles, added in 1500 so that the emperor Maximilian could watch the square below in the manner of a box at the theatre. Reliefs beneath show him with both wives. A small museum inside covers his reign; most visitors look up from the street and move on.
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Hofburg
Maria Theresa rebuilt the emperor's castle as a rococo residence in the 1760s, and the Giant's Hall carries portraits of all sixteen of her children across its walls. Her husband died in the building during the wedding celebrations of their son, which the guide does not skip. Five furnished apartments follow, one of them Elisabeth's.
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Hofkirche
Twenty-eight black bronze figures, over life size, stand guard around an empty tomb built for the emperor Maximilian, who is buried elsewhere. Dürer designed two of them and the polish on King Arthur's foot comes from four centuries of hands. The court church also holds Andreas Hofer's grave and a Renaissance organ still in use.
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Innsbrucker Dom
Baroque of 1724 on a Gothic footprint, rebuilt after wartime bombing, its ceiling frescoed by the Asam brothers in the illusionistic manner that makes a flat vault appear to open. Above the high altar hangs a small Cranach Madonna, the reason pilgrims came here in the first place. Free, and two minutes from the Golden Roof.
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Nordkettenbahn
Three linked lifts, also by Hadid, running from a station beside the river to the Hafelekar ridge at two thousand two hundred and fifty-six metres in about twenty minutes. Walking trails and a via ferrata leave from the top station. The last section is a cable car, so the whole trip depends on wind at the ridge.
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Patscherkofel
The rounded mountain south of the town, at two thousand two hundred and forty-six metres, which held the men's downhill in both Olympic years. A cable car climbs from Igls. An alpine garden sits near the top station and a circular path runs the shoulder, giving the Nordkette from the opposite side.
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Schloss Ambras
Archduke Ferdinand II kept his collection here from 1563 in what is counted the oldest museum building still standing, arranged as a Renaissance cabinet of curiosities: armour, coral, automata and portraits of court dwarfs and a hairy family. A Spanish hall of wood inlay runs the length of the upper castle. A bus climbs from the centre.
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Stadtturm
The medieval town watchtower on the main street, with a guard's room halfway up that was also a lock-up, and one hundred and forty-eight steps to a viewing gallery under the onion dome. The platform sits level with the old roofs and puts the Nordkette directly behind them, which is the photograph the tower is climbed for.
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Swarovski Kristallwelten
André Heller built this under a grass-covered giant's head in 1995 for the company's centenary, and it is a sequence of commissioned rooms rather than a factory tour: a crystal dome, a mirrored chamber, works by Brian Eno and Jim Whiting. A garden and a tower of play equipment sit outside. Twenty minutes east by train to Wattens.
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Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum
Whole panelled farmhouse rooms reassembled floor by floor beside the court church, with carnival masks, painted cupboards, nativity scenes and the tools of alpine work. It is one of the better regional collections in the Alps and it shares an entrance with the Hofkirche, so a single ticket covers both.