Altstadt Innsbruck

Strolling through the old town today, it is hard to believe that traffic rattled along in this narrow pedestrian zone until 1972. Coming from the Brenner Pass, you could drive almost dead straight from Wilten Monastery to the Kettenbrücke bridge to leave the city again to the east or west. Archive photos show the Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse full to the brim with cars. The old town centre, now treated as an appropriately venerable museum, was a normal part of the city's traffic concept. Viewing traffic as an evil is a fairly new phenomenon. Today a horror and a spectre, it was one of the main reasons for Innsbruck's importance and prosperity from the Middle Ages until the advent of the motor car.

The point where the Wipp and Inn valleys meet was a European crossroads even before the Brenner motorway was built. The Via Raetia was one of the few Alpine crossings that was already fortified and passable by wagons in the 14th century. Traders who were not travelling with pack animals and wanted to reach Italy passed through Innsbruck to a considerable extent. Today's Herzog-Friedrich-Straße, which crosses the old town as the main street, was on the main transport route between Venice and Augsburg. From today's Maria-Theresien-Straße via Goldene Dachl leading to the Ottoburg, it was the main traffic artery of the city of Innsbruck. Customs goods of all kinds that passed through here ensured the prosperity of the city. However, less pleasant things such as diseases were also imported. The plague probably came directly from Venice to Innsbruck in 1348 and decimated the city's population severely.

The 19th-century Duke Friedrich IV. street was known in the Middle Ages as Kramgasse The old town centre is known for being the home of the merchants, who were largely responsible for the town's prosperity. Until the 15th century, however, the old town looked very different. In front of the cathedral you can see a medieval Ritschn that criss-crossed Innsbruck before it was paved around 1500. These small canals, which ran through the city, were used to dispose of waste water and rubbish. This was not only intended to keep the streets clean, but also to flush pathogens out of the city as far as possible. Even in times gone by, people were concerned about cleanliness and odour. The town council appointed a gravedigger to clean the canals. The townspeople's chamber pots as well as animal faeces from farm animals were flushed into the Inn using water from the Sill Canal. The settlements to the east, downstream from Innsbruck, often benefited from this exclusive mixture.

The houses were mostly made of stone. The street was not yet paved. The arcades in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße were only gradually built by the city's wealthy citizens, as the city's first shopping centre, so to speak. The stone-built houses were not only warmer and more stately, but also had the advantage of being less likely to fall prey to the flames than the closely built wooden houses. In 1270, 1292, 1340 and 1390, fires caused extensive damage. The upswing that came with Innsbruck's new status as a royal seat gave people more security and comfort. The paintings on the façades that can still be seen today were mostly created later. The façades and reliefs of the houses, many of which are Gothic, are magnificent testimonies to days gone by.

The core of the buildings mostly dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries; many were renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries without destroying the Gothic structure. When Archduke Sigmund Franz, the last Habsburg of the Tyrolean line, died childless in 1665, Tyrol was administered by gubernators and lost its status as a royal seat and thus its importance. Urban development stagnated, which preserved the early modern character of the historic centre. Fires, earthquakes, air raids - nothing could permanently damage the old town. This is also thanks to the building material, the Höttinger Brecciewhich was used to reinforce many of the town houses after the two major earthquakes of 1670 and 1689.

However, the old city wall with the city gates had to give way. There were five entrances leading into the city. The suburban gate was located at the southern entrance to the old town towards Maria-Theresien-Straße until well into the 18th century. Next to the Pickentor, dem Inntor, dem Rumer Tor und dem Tränkertörl it was one of the five city gates. From the 18th century onwards, the city gates and the city moat, which had become useless as a defence system, were gradually filled in. Today, the five Innsbruck city gates can only be admired in pictures. The Wappentorbuilt under Maximilian with paintings by court painter Jörg Kölderer. A small picture on the façade of the house at the western entrance shows the suburban gate in its original form. The city's last defence tower, the so-called Kräuterturm (Herb Tower) at the north-west corner on Herzog-Otto-Ufer, which also served as the city prison, was demolished in 1890. Parts of Innsbruck's former city wall still exist today. The houses that enclose the old city centre offer glimpses of the old walls on which they were built.