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. The Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 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 named after the local grocers who were largely responsible for the town's prosperity. The arcades were called Chramen.

The 15th century saw major infrastructural changes. The houses were made of wood for a long time. The street was not yet paved. The arcades in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße were only gradually built by the wealthy citizens of the city, 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. In 1340, wooden structures were prohibited by princely law without the authorisation of the town council.

The upswing that came with Innsbruck's new status as a royal seat helped people to enjoy greater hygiene and comfort. 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 downstream to the east of Innsbruck often benefited from this exclusive mixture until the Inn was regulated. Many of the façade paintings, signs and reliefs on the houses were used for orientation within the city until the houses were numbered in the 18th century under Maria Theresa.

The old half-timbered houses gradually disappeared. The modernisation is also due to the nearby availability of building materials, the Höettinger Nagelfluhe or Höttinger Brecciewhich was used to reinforce many of the town houses after the two major earthquakes of 1670 and 1689. Since 1357, citizens of the city had been allowed to "They are allowed to cut, break and take tuft in all tuft pits they find and lead it to their city." With this opportunity to obtain building materials at favourable prices, the prince promoted the expansion of Innsbruck into a modern residential city without having to spend any money himself. The core of the buildings that still exist today mostly date back to the 15th and 16th centuries; many were renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries without destroying the Gothic structure. The narrow buildings stretched towards the back. Merchants' shops were located on the ground floor towards the front. Behind it was the Steingadena mostly brick-built storeroom with a cellar. On the upper floors of the stone houses were the flats, divided into individual parlours and rooms. There were often small gardens or even stables in the rear courtyards.

Gradually, the influx of wealthy people and aristocrats changed the cityscape in favour of more elaborate buildings. 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, preserving the early modern Gothic-Renaissance character of the historic centre. Fires, earthquakes, air raids - nothing could permanently damage the old town centre. During the air raids of the Second World War, only the Winklerhaus und das Kapfererhaus at the corners of Herzog-Friedrich-Straße with Riesengasse and some buildings in Seilergasse. Thanks to the resilient Höttinger Breccie.

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. Dismantling and decay began as early as the mid-16th century with the advent of heavy artillery. 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, Innsbruck's five 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.