A piece of Innsbruck and European transport history meanders inconspicuously across the Inn in the Höttinger Au. The 104 metre long Karwendel Bridge is part of a technical masterpiece from the turn of the century that connects Innsbruck with the southern Bavarian region. The box girder bridge made of riveted steel trusses requires only one river pier to allow trains weighing several tonnes to cross the river. The bridge was renovated in 2007. You can see the forces acting on the bridge when you stand on the wooden footbridge as a pedestrian while a train thunders across. The best view of the Karwendel Bridge is from the Freiburger Bridge further to the east.

The photogenic steel truss bridge as part of the Mittenwald or Karwendel railway is an impressive testimony to the outstanding engineering achievements of the time, which we take for granted today. The railway runs from Innsbruck via Seefeld and Mittenwald to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The particular challenge lay in overcoming the difference in altitude over a relatively short distance between the Inn Valley and the Seefeld plateau without the use of steam locomotives with a purely electrified railway. Engineer Josef Riehl (1842 - 1917) succeeded in overcoming the 600 metres in altitude to Seefeld thanks to the breathtaking route of the railway line over the Martinswand high above Zirl.

Riehl was a child of the period after 1848. The son of a Bolzano innkeeper, he skilfully exploited the new opportunities offered by technology and finance. As a young man, after studying in Karlsruhe and Munich, he gained his first experience in the construction of the Brenner railway, the Pustertal railway and lines in the east of the empire. In 1870, aged just 28, he founded his own company using his private assets as a basis. He recognised the need for so-called secondary and tertiary railways in addition to the main lines within the vast empire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Monarchy and the lack of financial resources in the public sector to realise them. With daring and skill, he succeeded in raising capital to build not only railway lines but also the associated infrastructure. Riehl took on the financing and planning of the entire value chain, which he then handed over as complete projects. Roads, railways, power stations and even the necessary railway stations were built under his aegis.

With the Hungerburgbahn, the Pustertalbahn in South Tyrol and the Stubaitalbahn, Riehl opened up the inner-Alpine Tyrolean region for the population, tourism and economy. In total, he realised 250 km of railway line in Tyrol alone. His masterpiece, however, was the Karwendel railway. It took more than 25 years to plan this mammoth project, for which he had to make advance financial contributions without knowing whether he would ever be able to realise it. It was only the state treaty between Bavaria and Austria in 1904 that made the cross-border railway possible. The contract, including all tunnels, viaducts, work on the mountainous terrain and a dedicated power station on the Ruetzbach, was finally completed in 1912 at a package price of over 24 million crowns to everyone's complete satisfaction and is still in operation today.

The university is one of the largest employers and, with its many locations, the largest property user in Innsbruck. 30,000 students populate, enliven and characterise life between the Nordkette and Patscherkofel mountains. You only realise how much the students enliven Innsbruck when the foreigners return home between semesters. Tens of thousands not only enliven the nightlife and the ski slopes, but also give the small town an international flair and hip urbanity.

1669 is considered the official founding year of the University of Innsbruck. On 15 October, Emperor Leopold I granted the Tyroleans the privilege of "Haller Salzaufschlags", which made it possible to tax the coveted commodity more heavily and thus finance university operations. The university emerged from the Latin school, which had been founded by the Jesuits under Ferdinand I just over a hundred years earlier. Latin and Greek were the main subjects taught. Academic books were still written in Latin in the early modern period. Latin was also a prerequisite for higher positions in the civil service. The first faculty to start teaching was philosophy. Theology, law and medicine followed shortly afterwards. When Pope Innocent XI gave the university his blessing in 1677, it was already in full swing.

By 1665, Innsbruck had lost its status as a royal seat and thus its prestige and splendour. The university made up for this demotion somewhat by retaining the aristocracy, at least in the form of students. Many sons of aristocratic families were among the initial 300 students. Despite their social standing, the students were not necessarily ambitious model pupils, but rather boys who were used to a certain lifestyle and status. In January 1674, for example, "nit allein zu nächtlicher Zeit sich Ungelegenheiten, Rumores und ungereimte Handlungen“ und es wurden „Studenten der Universität angetroffen, die allerlei verbotene Waffen wie Feuerrohr, Pistolen, Terzerol, Stilett, Säbel, Messer…" had with them. Teenagers from the upper classes were used to carrying and using weapons. In the aristocracy, the concept of honour was of immense importance. As in the military, breaches of honour could also lead to duels in student circles. Fighting fraternities symbolically continue this tradition to this day. The encounters between privileged young people and burghers, servants and tradesmen did not always run smoothly either. This created the problem that although students were able to mingle with the city's inhabitants, they were subject to university law, which was separate from city law.

For a long time, women and sons of artisan families were not allowed to study at university. The first female doctor of law at the university was only celebrated in the press on 11 December 1923.

„Am kommenden Samstag wird an der Innsbrucker Universität Fräulein Mitzi Fischer zum Doktor iuris promoviert. Fräulein Fischer ist eine gebürtige Wienerin. In Wien absolvierte sie auch das Gymnasium. Nach der Reifeprüfung oblag sie dem juristischen Studium der Universität Innsbruck. Die zukünftige Doktorin hat sämtliche Prüfungen mit Auszeichnungen absolviert, müßte also nach dem früheren Brauche sub auspiciis imperatoris promovieren. Jedenfalls ist Fräulein Fischer die erste Dame, die sich an der Innsbrucker Universität den juristischen Doktortitel erwirbt.“

Originally, the university was not located on the Innrain, but in Herrengasse near the parish church of St Jakob. A lack of space forced the students and professors to move to the outskirts of the city. From 1914 onwards, the library moved to the current location of the main university. The neo-baroque building was continuously expanded over time to cope with the increasing number of faculties and students. Particularly worth seeing in the library is the old reading room, which is very popular with students as a stylish place to study.

The forecourt is controversial, with the square designed by Lois Welzenbacher. Memorialwhich commemorates the fallen members of the University during the First World War. The fraternity motto "Ehre – Freiheit – Vaterland" was extended to include the word "Which". The renaming of the forecourt to Christoph-Probst-Platz commemorates the Innsbruck medical student who died in 1943 as a member of the resistance group Weiße Rose was executed. A memorial plaque on the Memorial A second plaque commemorates the liberation theologians Ignacio Ellacuría and Segundo Montes, two graduates of the University of Innsbruck who were murdered by the regime in San Salvador in 1989.

The university has always been a political issue. The name Leopold Franzens University goes back to the two emperors Leopold and Franz, under whom it was founded. The university was downgraded or closed twice before Emperor Franz I re-established it in 1826. The changes in the economy and society in the early years of industrialisation also had an impact on the university. In keeping with the spirit of the time, the opening speech by the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Prof Dr Joachim Suppan (1794 - 1864), dealt with a practical problem of physics, namely "eine genauere Kenntnis der so wichtigen und nützlichen Erfindung der Dampfmaschine auch für die vaterländische Industrie, wo dieselbe bisher noch keine Anwendung hat" would be achieved. The fact that Supan was also an ordained priest in addition to his degrees in philosophy and mathematics shows the influence that the church had on the education system in the 19th century. Supan's final exhortation to the students shows how closely the university was linked to the state authorities alongside the church, „dereinst dem Vaterlande durch Kenntnis und Tugend ersprießliche Dienste zu leisten“.

With the annexation to the German Reich in 1938, the university was renamed once again. After the war, the German Alpine University again the Leopold Franzens University.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, teachers and students have repeatedly made sensational achievements in research. Victor Franz Hess was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics during his time at the University of Innsbruck for his achievements in cosmic ray research. Quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger also worked at the University of Innsbruck, although not in 2022 when he was awarded the prize. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry was also awarded to Professors Fritz Pregel, Adolf Windaus and Hans Fischer, although they too were no longer working in Innsbruck.

The narrow building with the eye-catching façade in Josef-Hirn-Straße is home to Innsbruck's largest student fraternity, the Austria. Next to the entrance is a bronze plaque commemorating the date the association was founded on 9 June 1864. Its motto "In Veritate Libertas" (Note: Freedom lies in the truth) is recorded here. The "Bude" the  Austria itself is of more recent date. The house was built by the Boys Financed and built in 1902. Old pictures show that it was initially a detached house and was only gradually surrounded by other houses. With its distinguished appearance, turrets and bay windows, it stands out among the residential buildings. During the First World War, it served as a military hospital. Today there are several parlours, bars and rooms for learning and celebrating together in the fraternity house.

How did the foundation of the Austria? In the 19th century, liberal, nationalist desires also became increasingly popular among students and professors at Innsbruck University. University members demanded civil liberties, a free press and a constitution. The traditional feudal order was increasingly shaken in favour of a modern state modelled on France and England. It was mainly students who were in favour of the tame revolution in Innsbruck in 1848. While conservative subjects formed paramilitary organisations in the Schützen, the fraternities enjoyed great popularity among academics.

Within the fraternity system, there were various forms that have survived to this day. The majority of Austrian fraternities have a Catholic background. However, there are also fraternities that are politically far to the right. Most of them still do not accept women into their ranks. They are organised hierarchically and function according to their own rituals. The four principles of the Austria are the Catholic faith (Religio), Fatherland (Patria), science (Scientia) and friendship (Amicitia).

From the 19th century onwards, Catholic student fraternities formed the connecting element between the church, politics and the university. Although a strong, centralised state similar to the one in France was to replace the fragmented system of small states, the Catholic student fraternities were not the only ones to do so. Heiligen Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation or the German Confederation, a democratic republic was rarely called for. Catholicism, monarchy, multi-ethnic state, German nationalism - the definitions of fatherland were diverse within the various student societies. The entrance area of the fraternity house of the Austriaon which the Habsburg double-headed eagle and the Tyrolean eagle are depicted, gives an indication of the orientation of this connection.

Student fraternities are powerful networks. If you take a look at the list of former members of the AustriaOver the decades, bishops as well as leading politicians from the conservative camp have been members. Several provincial governors, mayors of Innsbruck and Federal Chancellor Julius Raab were members. The behaviour with sabres, ribbons and caps at events and processions may seem ridiculous at first glance to uninitiated observers. The customs, traditions and practices are certainly antiquated and not everyone's cup of tea. For outsiders, the world of thought of the connections is also difficult to understand and contradictory. The motto above the Austria portal reads "I am built for the protection & refuge of human rights & free speech". Members of the Austria were involved in the Catholic resistance against National Socialism. On the other hand, Engelbert Dollfuß and Kurt Schuschnigg were both chancellors of the period, who as Austrofascism members of the Austrian Parliament, which was to go down in Austrian history. Austria.

From the 16th century onwards, the Innrain, today a busy thoroughfare, was mainly populated by the civil service, which was growing as part of the princely administrative apparatus. In order not to leave the salvation of the new inhabitants unattended, construction of St John's Church began in 1728 in the High Baroque style according to plans by Georg Anton Gumpp. Visitors are greeted by the onion-shaped towers typical of the Baroque style. The temple-shaped entrance area of the church is decorated with a beautiful ceiling fresco. In classic baroque style, the picture shows the Providentia Divinadivine providence. While the cornucopia pours wealth and prosperity onto the righteous, the lower section on the right shows hell, where sinners experience God's punishment for their dissolute existence on earth. The interior is also richly decorated and enchants with its dazzling white colour.

St John's Church is not dedicated to St John the Baptist, but to St John of Nepomuk. According to legend, St John Nepomuk did not want to break the seal of confession when the King of Bohemia questioned him about his wife's confession. As a result, King Wenceslas IV had him tortured in Prague and then drowned in the Vltava. He is considered the patron saint of bridges and confession. The square in front of the church commemorates Bishop Reinhold Stecher, who died in 2013 and is still very popular in Tyrol today, and provides a beautiful view of the free-standing church. Until 1985, this small, inner-city oasis was a car park. The rededication as a car-free zone was relatively early by Innsbruck standards, considering how long it took to turn Maria-Theresien-Straße into a pedestrian zone.

Bekannt ist die Johanneskirche auch als Neue Universitätskirche. When the university emerged from the Jesuit College in 1669, this powerful order in Innsbruck was in charge of higher education in the city. For a long time, university services were held in the Jesuit church. When the main university moved to the Innrain, St John's Church was closer to the students, at least in terms of location. Bishop Stecher, to whom the square in front of the church is dedicated, elevated St John's Church to university church status in 1993. A memorial plaque on the north side of the outer façade of St John's Church commemorates the members of the Catholic student fraternity Leopoldina who died in the world wars.

In 1939, the property developer Neue Heimat (note: today Neue Heimat Tirol) built several apartment blocks in Wilten, Pradl, Reichenau and Saggen, which are still known today as the South Tyrolean housing estates. The largest of these projects was built under the direction and realisation of Theodor Prachensky and Jakob Albert between Egger-Lienz-Straße and Franz-Fischer-Straße. At first glance, the architecture may appear monotonous and unspectacular, but if you consider the dimensions and significance of the project from the perspective of the 1930s and 40s, you quickly realise that it was not a housing estate that was created here, but an entire district.

The two to three-storey buildings are grouped around spacious, interconnected inner courtyards. The individual courtyards are bordered by low, stone walls, giving the entire ensemble the character of an inner-city fortress. The entrance to the estate from Stafflerstrasse to Speckbacherstrasse, with its neo-Romanesque columns, represents a small city gate through which one enters the estate. As with the Pembau block, Prachensky probably also wanted this bay window to represent a link to Innsbruck's history, as the composition is very reminiscent of the Golden Roof in the historic city centre. Höttinger Breccia, a speciality of Innsbruck, was also used as the building material for the passageway.

After the First World War, the historic province of Tyrol was divided at the Brenner border. The German-speaking population of South Tyrol suffered more and more reprisals under Mussolini's fascist regime. This led to disagreements between Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Mussolini wanted to Italianise the German-speaking South Tyroleans, whereas Hitler had promised to unite all German-speaking ethnic groups. In 1939, the two dictators agreed to give the German-speaking population of South Tyrol the opportunity to resettle from Italy to the German Reich. The propaganda in favour of the resettlement under the motto "Home to the Reich" was effective. The majority of German-speaking South Tyroleans chose to emigrate northwards.

"South Tyroleans, confess yourselves! A difficult but proud hour calls on you to confess for your blood and your people, to decide whether you will finally renounce your German nationality for yourselves and your descendants or whether you will proudly and freely confess your German identity. You are not choosing between your homeland and Galicia, but between a South Tyrol that has become alien to us and the land that the Führer will assign to us in the German Reich. The decision is difficult, but not in doubt for a moment, because we know what we owe to the call of our German blood, the German people and our Führer. We sacrifice the clod to the great goal, the great, holy German Reich."

As the capital of the Reichsgau, Innsbruck was to receive many of the so-called optants. Up to 50,000 new citizens were expected. In many peripheral areas of the city at the time, construction of the settlements began as early as August 1939 in anticipatory obedience. In order to bring the resettlers "home" as quickly as possible, all levers within the immense budget were released despite the war. In the first construction phase of the South Tyrol special measure, the city of Innsbruck planned 1000 flats, with almost 2000 more to be built by 1944. In addition to flats, shops, restaurants, schools, kindergartens and offices were to be built. As the war continued, money, building materials and labour became scarce, but despite this, just over 2000 flats were completed across the city.

When the blocks between Egger-Lienz-Straße and Franz-Fischer-Straße were ready for occupation in 1942, the situation was completely different to when the South Tyrolean population had been surveyed a few years earlier. The fortunes of war had turned and with them the enthusiasm for the Home in the Reich movement. There were now too many flats for too few "returnees" who dared to make the move from their Italian homeland to the north. Many of the flats were therefore not allocated to South Tyroleans, but to "deserving" subjects of the Nazi system.

During Allied air raids between December 1943 and December 1944, some of the houses in Speckbacherstraße were hit. None of them had to be demolished and the building fabric was basically preserved. In the 1960s, the houses were raised by two storeys, followed later by renovations and a change of colour from dull grey to various more vibrant colours. Between the blocks is the traffic park, where children from Inns-Bruck take their cycling licence under the watchful eye of the police.

On the corner of Speckbacherstraße and Franz-Fischer-Straße, you can admire a silent testimony to the construction of the South Tyrolean housing estate. At the height of the first floor is a stone statue. It was made by the South Tyrolean sculptor Alexander Lanner, who also sculpted the bust of the Führer in the Wedding Hall in the Golden Roof and the Princess and Frog King in the fountain in the Hofgarten in Innsbruck. The man looking resolutely northwards towards the old Reich is intended to represent a typical South Tyrolean in traditional Merano costume, a symbol of the optants who had committed themselves to the blood and soil ideology of the German people and left their homeland to do so.

An imperial wedding and an imperial death within a few days of each other in the summer of 1765 once again made Innsbruck the centre of Europe for a short time. The Triumphal Gate commemorates the events that took place in Innsbruck. On 5 August, Maria Theresa's son Leopold married the Spanish princess Maria Ludovica in Innsbruck. For the wedding party coming from south-west and eastern Europe, Innsbruck was a good meeting place to finalise the deal and make the union official, as the former royal seat already had experience with royal and princely weddings. However, the celebrations were marred by an accident. Shortly after the wedding, on 18 August, the groom's father, Emperor Franz I of Habsburg-Lorraine, died of a stroke.

The original wooden triumphal gate was only intended as a temporary, festively decorated entrance to the city during the wedding. Maria Theresa had the gate permanently built in stone in 1774, modelled on the Roman triumphal arch of Emperor Constantine, to commemorate both the death of her husband and the wedding of her son. The southern part of the triumphal gate facing Leopoldstrasse expresses the joy of the wedding of the future Emperor Leopold II. The portrait of the ruling couple is flanked by the figures of the Providentia Divina, der göttlichen Vorsehung, und der Constantia, der Beständigkeit. Diese beiden Eigenschaften sahen die Habsburger als ganz entscheidend für ihre Dynastie an. Sie legitimierten die Macht ihres Hauses über ihre Untertanen durch das Gottesgnadentum, der Vorsehung, auf der die Beständigkeit the fate of the country for the good of all. The Angel of Death is enthroned on the northern part facing Maria-Theresien-Strasse and is intended to symbolise mourning over the sudden death of the husband of Maria Theresa, the famous ruler who shaped Austria's history.

The remains of the city wall and the demolition material of the suburban gate at today's southern entrance to the old town, which fell victim to the modernisation of the city under Maria Theresa in 1765, were used as building material.

Die Triumphpforte markierte die bis 1904 geltende Grenze zwischen Innsbruck und dem eigenständigen Dorf Wilten. Lebensmittel wie Bier, Wein, Fleisch und Getreide, die zwischen Innsbruck und Wilten gehandelt wurden, mussten verzollt werden. Die sogenannte Akzise war bei den Innsbruckern verhasst, machte sie das tägliche Leben doch unnötig teuer. Innsbruck und Wilten waren über gemeinsame Geschichte, Infrastrukturprojekte und die nahtlose Bebauung immer mehr zusammengewachsen, der Binnenzoll auf Grundnahrungsmittel wurde mehr und mehr als Schikane empfunden. Auf Archivbildern kann man das Accis-Häuschen östlich der Triumphpforte noch sehen, in dem zwischen dem Ende der Stadtgrenze und seinem Abbruch 1908 Loys Singers „Wiener Bazar“, quasi ein frühes Einkaufszentrum Innsbrucks beheimatet war. Leider schlängelt sich heute der Verkehr um die Triumphpforte. Wer ein schönes Foto mit Berg Isel oder Nordkette im Hintergrund machen möchte, muss früh dran sein.

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The Winklerhaus often goes unnoticed as a small sight in the city by locals and tourists alike. Wrongly so, as it is one of the few Art Nouveau buildings in Innsbruck. Built in 1902, the Winklerhaus Two buildings in two streets. From Leopoldstraße, you can admire the façade with its rich and sweeping ornamentation. The animals, mythical creatures and masks on the capitals are typical of the playful Art Nouveau style. The part of the Winklerhaus in Maximilianstraße is less colourful, but no less worth seeing. The bay window decorated with two mythical creatures in particular is evidence of an imaginative and creative builder:

"Let each man do as he pleases,
Let everyone see where they stay,
And who stands,
that he does not fall."

Art Nouveau was an expression of a new bourgeois self-image around the turn of the century. It was a kind of rebellion against traditional values, which the aristocracy still embodied despite the changes after 1848, especially in the Austrian monarchy. Enlightened citizens increasingly saw themselves as individuals outside of Catholic-orientated hierarchies and the new technocracy. Sensuality and nature against rationality and class thinking, body awareness as a sign of a new era. Life reformers abhorred the new synchronisation of time and having to submit to the galloping technologisation and rationality in every respect. Man, body, mind and soul in connection with nature were to take centre stage. Art Nouveau as an art movement was based on this trend. Similar to Romanticism in the 18th and 19th centuries, a form of mysticism away from structured and sober reality was to return to life. The splendour hinted at a new, better time, a golden age. The clear forms of classicism and the pure reason it represented were to be overcome by the playfulness of Art Nouveau. The Winklerhaus represents a contrast to the majority of buildings erected in Innsbruck around 1900. This becomes clear when one compares the architecture of the Winklerhaus with the austere main post office in Maximilianstraße opposite, which was planned in the typical style of the k.uk. Official buildings were planned in 1908. Unlike in Vienna, where Art Nouveau by artists such as Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt began its triumphal march, this style never really caught on in Tyrol. The upper floors of the Winklerhaus now house flats. There is a stationery and office supplies shop on the ground floor.

Der Platz des heutigen Stifts Wilten zählt zu den am frühesten besiedelten Teilen des Stadtgebietes. Die Römer, deren Castell Veldidena north of the abbey, also brought the Christian faith to the region. A church was mentioned at this location as early as 565 AD.

During the conquest of Tyrol by the Bavarians from the 7th century onwards, the Castell Veldidena destroyed. The transition from Roman to Bavarian rule was less sudden and warlike and much more gradual and, with the exception of a few battles, fluid. The cultures of the new and old inhabitants intermingled after the collapse of the Roman structures. The Christian institutions and structures were retained for administrative purposes. Dioceses and monasteries were important keepers of order in the Middle Ages, as it was mostly churchmen who could read and write. The everyday language was a form of Germanic, but Latin had established itself early on as the written language, even among the "barbarians".

The Bavarians were Christianised from the 8th century at the latest. At this time, the duchy was feudal to Emperor Charlemagne. The Heilige Römische Reich gave the Central European region a certain structure, but this was hardly noticeable in remote areas such as Tyrol. The church was the most important structuring administrative organ of both the old and the new rulers. A monastery school in Wilten was mentioned in 1313. Associated with this were lands that the monastery could dispose of. The powerful Bavarian duke Heinrich der Löwe donated a hereditary farm from his estate to the monastery. The monastery had lower jurisdiction over these lands, which included everything that was not subject to the blood court. The church was regarded as a strict feudal lord. It is therefore no wonder that during the 1525 uprising, Wilten Abbey was the Innsbruck institution that came under the most pressure.

Wilten Abbey is still run by the Premonstratensians today. The document confirming the takeover of the monastery by the Premonstratensian Order in 1141 is still preserved in the archives of Wilten Abbey. The idea of poverty was not as pronounced among the Premonstratensians as it was among the Cistercians, who lived according to the Benedictine rule "Ora et labora" live. In 1180, it was Wilten Abbey that ceded the lands south of the Inn to the Counts of Andechs, on which the town was founded. Part of the deal was the takeover of the parishes of Wilten, Ampass and Patsch by the Premonstratensians. Today, Wilten Abbey looks after 21 parishes in and around Innsbruck.

Wie so viele barocke Bauten des 17. Jahrhunderts in Innsbruck, entstand auch die heutige Wittener Basilika nach Plänen von Christoph Gumpp. Allerdings gibt es auch Teile wie den Kapitelsaal oder das Kreuzgewölbe, die noch aus der Zeit der Gotik stammen und noch heute erhalten sind. Im Krieg wurden Teile des Stifts durch Luftangriffe in Mitleidenschaft gezogen, wurden aber in den Jahren 1946/47 schnell wieder renoviert. Das Stift ist bis heute ein Hort von Kunst und Kultur. Im Rahmen einer Führung können die Sammlungen, das Archiv und die Bibliothek des Stifts Wilten besichtigt werden. Regelmäßig finden Konzerte in den Räumlichkeiten des Klosters statt. Sehr eindrucksvoll ist auch die prunkvolle Ausstattung der Innenräume. In der Stiftskirche gibt es eine Ikonensammlung, die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen katholischem und orthodoxem Glauben aufzeigen.

According to legend, Wilten Abbey was founded by a giant. The giant Haymon, an immigrant, is said to have slain the giant Tyrsus, who lived in Wilten. As penance for his deed, Haymon founded the monastery. However, a dragon that lived in the Sill gorge repeatedly destroyed the building and the surrounding area. Haymon killed the beast, cut off its tongue and gave it to Wilten Monastery. The statue of Haymon in the collegiate church and the two stone statues at the entrance to the church are reminders of the two giants and their battle. This legend may not have a well-founded historical background, but it can serve as a parable for the change of power in the Middle Ages. Haymon symbolises the Bavarian conquest of the Inn Valley, while Tyrsus stands for the local population.