Innsbruck’s Shining Imperial Palace

It is 1465 and Archduke Sigmund the Rich sits back in his chair, enormously satisfied. He has just finished his most important architectural project: The Imperial Palace in Innsbruck or Hofburg as it is called by the locals.

It is a beautiful and elaborate Gothic style castle with large representation rooms, a chapel, a state-of-the-art and heated (!) banquet hall, a chancellery, and a tradition-breaking living room with large windows, a winding staircase, wall coverings and a stretch bed. Interestingly, Siegmund integrated three prominent constructional elements of the medieval city fortification in the construction of the Imperial Palace, the medieval city wall, two city towers and nearby houses, which can be still seen today.

But one thing he did not know. This ground-breaking edifice would become one of the most important homes of the Habsburgs. Today, the Hofburg in Innsbruck is, next to the Vienna Hofburg and Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, amongst the three most significant cultural buildings in Austria. See you there!