On Friedl mit der leeren Tasche followed Siegmund der Münzreiche as Prince of Tyrol. Siegmund of Tyrol (1427 - 1496) had the worst possible start to his reign. When his father Frederick died, Siegmund was only 12 years old. His uncle Frederick III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and father of Maximilian I, therefore took him into involuntary custody and guardianship. You could say that Siegmund began his career as a hostage of the emperor, his own cousin. Tyrol was now a rich county and the emperor was reluctant to relinquish direct control over it. It was only when the Tyrolean estates protested against this paternalism that Siegmund was able to take office. The Tyrolean Diet had taken over the reins of government in the absence of a sovereign prince, thereby demonstrating its political clout. At the age of 18, Siegmund moved to Innsbruck to take over the official duties. Four years later, he married Eleanor of Scotland (1433 - 1480), the visually unattractive 16-year-old daughter of King James of the House of Stewart. The marriage was to remain childless.

Siegmund issued the Schwaz mountain regulationswhich was to become the model for all Habsburg mines. Mining officials were given more rights within their sphere of influence, similar to the universities. There were special regulations for miners within society, as they were a highly sought-after labour force. One can speak of an early social and labour law agreement. The miners worked hard, but earned relatively well. The same applied to the mint and the salt works in Hall. Urban life in Innsbruck and the surrounding area also attracted new trades. In Mühlau, a high-quality metalworking trade was established in the form of the Plattnerei. In 1484, Siegmund had the mint moved from Meran in South Tyrol to Hall, which earned him the nickname Siegmund der Münzreiche brought in. This meant an immense upgrade not only for Hall, but also for Innsbruck.

Innsbruck flourished under Siegmund's court and coffers. During his opulent reign, the city became a centre of attraction for craftsmen, goldsmiths and artists. The city tower near the Old Town Hall as an expression of the city's prosperity and the first parts of the Hofburg were built under Siegmund. A glass painter settled in Innsbruck and established the tradition of glass painting in Innsbruck. Around 1900, the resulting Stained glass Innsbruck in today's Glasmalereistraße, one of the world's leading companies with branches in New York and Munich. The court library grew in step with Siegmund and Eleonore's humanistically scholarly guests. Both were considered art-loving and interested in literature. Before the invention of printing, books were an expensive hobby. Travellers and showmen were also welcome at court to entertain local and international guests.

Siegmund's opulent lifestyle not only cost him a lot of money, but also his political reputation and, at the end of his career, probably also the princely throne. His second marriage was to Katharina of Saxony (1468 - 1524), a lady from a highly aristocratic electoral family. It was probably also thanks to the influence and court behaviour of Siegmund and his two wives that the expenses of the Coin rich exceeded the income from taxes, salt works and mines in the long term. At the royal wedding in 1484, the bride's procession alone comprised 54 carriages. The guests had to be accommodated and catered for in Innsbruck. Even with a wife 40 years his junior, the now senile Siegmund was granted a male heir, which must have been particularly bitter for him considering the 30 children he was rumoured to have fathered out of wedlock.

At the same time, times became tougher for those who could not keep up with the new pace of life in the city. It can be assumed that there were around 2000 townspeople at this time. Sigmund's court probably consisted of 500 people, not including his wife's court. These "strangers" caused a sensation in Innsbruck. The gap between the social classes grew. The witch trial of 1485 took place in a climate of envy, resentment and scepticism towards the new customs that had arrived in Innsbruck.

Siegmund was not the most successful ruler of Tyrol, but is still fondly remembered today thanks to his services to the cultural upswing in Innsbruck. At the end of his reign, his court was overly bloated and expensive. A lost war with the Swiss Confederates obliged him to make payments, and a war with Venice also ended badly. Siegmund had to hand over Habsburg possessions in Alsace and what is now Breisgau to Charles the bold of Burgundy, the future father-in-law of Maximilian I. He sold the Austrian Forelands to the Duchy of Bavaria for a ridiculously low price and pledged the Tyrolean silver mines to Jakob Fugger. The Bavarian Wittelsbachs wanted to bring Tyrol back under their control through an inheritance agreement with Sigmund, who was mentally deranged due to his age. Only imperial pressure and the hasty intervention of the Tyrolean estates and Maximilian made it possible for the land to remain with the House of Habsburg. 

Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529 - 1595) is one of the most colourful figures in Tyrolean history. His father, Emperor Ferdinand I, gave him an excellent education. He grew up at the Spanish court of his uncle Emperor Charles V. The years in which Ferdinand received his schooling were the early years of Jesuit influence at the Habsburg courts. The young statesman was brought up entirely in the spirit of pious humanism. This was complemented by the customs of the Renaissance aristocracy. At a young age, he travelled through Italy and Burgundy and had become acquainted with a lifestyle at the wealthy courts there that had not yet established itself among the German aristocracy. Ferdinand was what today would be described as a globetrotter, a member of the educated elite or a cosmopolitan. He was considered intelligent, charming and artistic. Among his less eccentric contemporaries, Ferdinand enjoyed a reputation as an immoral and hedonistic libertine. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to have organised debauched and immoral orgies.

Ferdinand's father divided his realm between his sons. Maximilian II, who was rightly suspected of heresy and adherence to Protestant doctrines by his parents, inherited Upper and Lower Austria as well as Bohemia and Hungary. Ferdinand's younger brother Charles ruled in Inner Austria, i.e. Carinthia, Styria and Carniola. The middle child received Tyrol, which at the time extended as far as the Engadine, and the fragmented Habsburg Forelands in the west of the central European possessions.

Ferdinand took over the province of Tyrol as sovereign in turbulent times. He had already spent several years in Innsbruck in his youth. The mines in Schwaz began to become unprofitable due to the cheap silver from America. The flood of silver from the Habsburg possessions in New Spain on the other side of the Atlantic led to inflation. However, these financial problems did not stop Ferdinand from commissioning personal and public infrastructure. The Italian cities of Florence, Venice and Milan were trendsetters in culture, art and architecture. Ferdinand's Tyrolean court was to be in no way inferior to them. To this end, he had Innsbruck remodelled in the spirit of the Renaissance. In keeping with the trend of the time, he imitated the Italian aristocratic courts. Court architect Giovanni Lucchese assisted him in this endeavour. Gone were the days when Germans were considered uncivilised in the more beautiful cities south of the Alps, barbaric or even as Pigs were labelled.

He spent a considerable part of his life at Ambras Castle near Innsbruck, where he amassed one of the most valuable collections of works of art and armour in the world. Ferdinand transformed the castle above the village of Amras into a modern court. His parties, masked balls and parades were legendary. During the wedding of a nephew, he had 1800 calves and 130 oxen roasted. Wine is said to have flowed from the wells instead of water for 10 days.

But Ambras Castle was not the end of Innsbruck's transformation. To the west of the city, an archway still reminds us of the Tiergartena hunting ground for Ferdinand, including a summer house also designed by Lucchese. In order for the prince to reach his weekend residence, a road was laid in the marshy Höttinger Au, which formed the basis for today's Kranebitter Allee. The Lusthaus was replaced in 1786 by what is now known as the Pulverturm The new building, which houses part of the sports science faculty of the University of Innsbruck, replaced the well-known building. The princely sport of hunting was followed in the former Lusthauswhich was the Powder Tower. In the city centre, he had the princely Comedihaus on today's Rennweg. In order to improve Innsbruck's drinking water supply, the Mühlauerbrücke bridge was built under Ferdinand to lay a water pipeline from the Mühlaubach stream into the city centre. The Jesuits, who had arrived in Innsbruck shortly before Ferdinand took office to make life difficult for troublesome reformers and church critics and to reorganise the education system, were given a new church in Silbergasse.

He paid particular attention to the confessional orientation of his flock. Fleecing the population, living in splendour, tolerating Protestantism among his important advisors and at the same time fighting Protestantism among the people was no contradiction for the trained Renaissance prince. Already at the age of 15, he marched under his uncle Charles V in the Schmalkaldic War into battle against the enemies of the Roman Church. As a sovereign, he saw himself as Advocatus Ecclesiae (note: representative of the church) in a confessional absolutist sense, who was responsible for the salvation of his subjects. Coercive measures, the foundation of churches and monasteries such as the Franciscans and the Capuchins in Innsbruck, improved pastoral care and the staging of Jesuit theatre plays such as "The beheading of John" were the weapons of choice against Protestantism. Ferdinand's piety was not artificial, but like most of his contemporaries, he managed to adapt flexibly to the situation.

Ferdinand's politics were suitably influenced by the Italian avant-garde of the time. Machiavelli wrote his work "Il Principe", which stated that rulers were allowed to do whatever was necessary for their success, even if they were incapable of being deposed. Ferdinand II attempted to do justice to this early absolutist style of leadership and issued his Tyrolean Provincial Code A modern set of legal rules by the standards of the time. For his subjects, this meant higher taxes on their earnings as well as extensive restrictions on mountain pastures, fishing and hunting rights. The miners, mining entrepreneurs and foreign trading companies with their offices in Innsbruck also drove up food prices. It could be summarised that Ferdinand enjoyed the exclusive pleasure of hunting on his estates, while his subjects lived at subsistence level due to increasing burdens, prices and game damage.

His relationship life was eccentric for a member of the high aristocracy. Ferdinand's first "semi-wild marriage" was to the commoner Philippine Welser. The sovereign is said to have been downright infatuated with his beautiful wife, which is why he disregarded all the conventions of the time. Their children were excluded from the succession due to the strict social order of the 16th century. After Philippine Welser died, Ferdinand married the devout Anna Caterina Gonzaga, a 16-year-old princess of Mantua, at the age of 53. However, it seems that the two did not feel much affection for each other, especially as Anna Caterina was a niece of Ferdinand. The Habsburgs were less squeamish about marriages between relatives than they were about the marriage of a nobleman to a commoner. However, he was also "only" able to father three daughters with her. Ferdinand's final resting place was in the Silver Chapel with his first wife Philippine Welser.

Siegmund der Münzreiche was the one who brought Niklas Türing (1427 - 1496) to Innsbruck in the 15th century. He made his first documented appearance in 1488. The Türings were a family of stonemasons and master builders from what is now Swabia, which at the time was part of the Habsburg Monarchy as part of Vorderösterreich. Innsbruck had been the royal seat of the Tyrolean princes for several decades, but the architectural splendour had not yet arrived north of the Alps. The city was a collection of wooden houses and not very prestigious. Golden times were dawning for craftsmen and master builders, which were to gather even more momentum under Maximilian. There was a real building boom. Aristocrats wanted to have a residence in the city in order to be as close as possible to the centre of power. In the days before the press, a functioning postal system, fax and e-mail, politics was mainly played out through direct contact.

The Türings made a career in step with the city. It is reported from 1497 that Niklas Türing was in the service of the sovereign as a "paid court mason". When he died in 1517 or 1518, it is not known for certain, he was listed on his gravestone as "Roman imperial majesty's chief foreman" is the title. Together with his son Gregor, he was listed as a master stonemason. This enabled the Türings to acquire citizenship in Innsbruck. By 1506 at the latest, they had a house in the workers' and craftsmen's neighbourhood Anbruggen. In 1509, they were able to acquire the house of today's Gasthof zum Lamm in Mariahilfstraße. Further property was added at what is now Schlossergasse 21.

In the course of the late Middle Ages, the early Gothic period and later the Renaissance gave Europe a new architectural guise with a new understanding of architecture and aesthetics. Buildings such as Notre Dame or the Minster of York set the trend that would characterise the whole of Europe until the onset of the Baroque period. Pointed towers, ribbed vaults, bay windows and playful carvings depicting everyday courtly life are some of the typical features that make the heterogeneous style recognisable. The work of the Türings can be traced particularly well in the old town centre. Many of the town houses, such as the Trautsonhaus still have Gothic ground plans, inner courtyards and carvings.

The Türings left their mark on Gothic Innsbruck in the transitional period between the Middle Ages and early modern times. Thanks to their training, they combined an eye for the big picture and details in their building projects. They were known for their particularly fine stonework, which resulted in ornate portals, arcades, staircases and vaults. They produced relief jewellery with patterns in the typical style of Renaissance art. Grotesques, vases and depictions of animals were typical ways of decorating bay windows and smooth walls. The symmetrical arrangement of the individual elements is also a characteristic of the period.

Niklas Türing is the Goldene Dachl to a large extent. He also created the statue of the Burgriesen Haidla particularly tall member of Siegmund's bodyguard, which can be seen today in the city tower. Emperor Maximilian held him in such high esteem that he allowed him to display the family coat of arms of the Türings and his wife, a fountain and a fish, in the vault of the Goldenen Dachls to immortalise him. His son Gregor immortalised himself with the Trautsonhaus in der Herzog-Friedrich-Straße und am Burgriesenhaus in the Domgasse. The last of the Türings to have an influence on the Innsbruck building scene was Niklas Türing the Younger, who began planning the Hofkirche together with Andrea Crivelli. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the influence of the Gothic style began to wane, especially in what is now Austria. Churches in particular were increasingly remodelled and rebuilt in the Baroque style as part of the Counter-Reformation. Today, Türingstraße in the east of Innsbruck is a reminder of the early modern dynasty of master builders.