What most visitors to Innsbruck notice first and foremost are the mountains that seem to encircle the city. The mountains are not only beautiful to look at, but have always influenced many things in the city. This starts with supposedly small things like the weather, as the writer and politician Beda Webers' view from days gone by proves:

""The warm wind or scirocco is a special phenomenon. It comes from the south, bounces off the northern mountains and falls with force into the valley. It likes to cause headaches, but it melts the winter snow quickly and promotes fertility immensely. This makes it possible to plant maize in Innsbruck""

This weather phenomenon may take its name from Scirocco and traffic was not yet a major problem in 1851. However, just like the Innsbruck car driver today, the blacksmith in the old town in 1450 and the legionnaire sent from central Italy to the Alps in 350 were certainly complaining about the warm downdraught, which seems to drive everyone crazy several times a month. In the past, people were happy about the warm air that melted the snow in the fields, whereas today's tourists moan about the apery ski slopes on the Seegrube.

The location between the Wipptal valley in the south and the Nordkette mountain range not only influences the frequency of migraines, but also the leisure activities of Innsbruck residents, as Weber also recognised. "The locals are characterised by their cheerfulness and charity, they especially love shore excursions in the beautiful season." One may talk about Kindness and benevolence The Innsbruck locals argue that excursions in the form of hiking, skiing or cycling are still very popular today. No wonder, Innsbruck is surrounded by mountains. You can be in the middle of the forest within a few minutes from anywhere in the city. Young people from all over Europe spend at least part of their time studying at the University of Innsbruck, not only because of the excellent professors and facilities, but also to spend their free time on the slopes, mountain bike routes and hiking trails without having to miss out on urban flair. This is both a blessing and a curse. As a major employer and training centre, the university boosts the economy, while at the same time the cost of living in the city, which cannot grow any further because it is squeezed between the mountains, increases due to students from abroad.

Innsbruck's rise to become the centre of Tyrol in the 15th century is also largely due to the city's location. The Brenner Pass is very low and makes it relatively easy to cross the Alpine belt that winds around Italy's northern border. In the days before the railway brought goods and people effortlessly from A to B, crossing the Alps was hard work and the Brenner Pass was a welcome relief. Between 1239 and 1303, Innsbruck was the only town between „Mellach and Ziller“ in the central Inn Valley, which had the princely right of settlement. Here, goods had to be transferred from one cart to the next within the regulated cartage system, an enormous advantage for Innsbruck's economy. Innsbruck was not quite as rich as Bolzano and had no political significance until the early 15th century, but became one of the most important transport and trade hubs in the Alpine region The former provincial capital of Merano had no chance against the city on the Inn between Brenner, Scharnitz and the Achen Pass in the long term due to its remoteness. Its location in the Alps also favoured tourism, which gained a foothold from the 1860s at the latest. Travellers appreciated the combination of easy accessibility, urban infrastructure and Alpine flair. With the development of the mountainous region by railway, it was easy to travel and spend leisure time in the mountains or at one of the spas without having to forego the comforts of city life. By the time they were tamed by the railway, the Alps had gone from being a source of problems to an economic factor. Gone were the times characterised by difficult agriculture; yesterday's enemy became a saviour.

In addition to the mountains, the rivers played a key role in Innsbruck's development. From the time of Maximilian, Innsbruck's drinking water came into the city from the Nordkette via a water pipe, while the Inn and Sill were responsible for sanitation. Cattle were led to the watering place on the Inn, laundry was washed and waste of all kinds, including human and animal faeces, was disposed of. When the town began to grow during industrialisation, the first landfill site was built at Sillspitz in the east of the town, which was later supplemented by another one in the west at what is now Sieglanger. Until the road network was improved in the 16th century, there was lively shipping traffic between Telfs, Innsbruck and Hall. Over 1000 years after the Roman colonisation, the Inn Valley was still a marshy stretch of land criss-crossed by alluvial forests. Settlements such as Wilten, castles such as the fortress above Amras and roads were built slightly away from the river on alluvial cones or in low mountain heights. The floodplains around Innsbruck were used as common land by the villages. Depending on the water level, grazing land and firewood were available and the river could be used as a transport route - or not. Field names such as At the pouring in the Höttinger Au are a reminder of the fact that until the early modern period, the Inn was not tamed either, but was more or less a cultivated wilderness. Floods were a recurring consequence of the unregulated river. Between 1749 and 1789, several floods claimed many lives in Innsbruck.

The economic damage was also immense. The Inn bridge brought customs revenue into the town's coffers and was the reason why the settlement was able to become a town. For centuries, timber was sent down the Inn from the Tyrolean Oberland as drift. In Hall, a wooden rake at the Inn bridge fished the precious flotsam out of the water. Innsbruck, but above all the salt and silver mines in Hall and Schwaz needed the material and energy source. Horse-drawn carts with over 20 animals were needed for the journey up the river, pulling goods upstream on the towpaths. Fortified ark defences were built near settlements and towns in order to tame the river at least a little and limit the impact of floods and drought.

In the 18th century, economisation and scientification, which made themselves felt in all areas of life, also promoted the cultivation of the landscape. The spirit of the Enlightenment was also applied to optimising the Inn as a transport route and increasing the economic efficiency of the available land. The common land along the Inn was increasingly placed in the care of individual landlords, who pushed ahead with the reclamation of this alluvial land. The Theresian state apparatus wanted to connect the empire not only by land with roads, but also via the main rivers. Responsibility for the regulation and construction of the Inn was transferred from the municipalities and the Hall salt works to the state. Innsbruck's first Chief ark inspector Franz Anton Rangger began mapping the Inn in 1739 in order to make the course of the river easier to plan and faster by straightening and damming it. The project of taming the river was to take more than 100 years. The Napoleonic Wars delayed the construction of the facilities. It was only after the economic hardship of the early 19th century that the state was able to continue the project. Blockstone dams gradually replaced the ark defences. By the time the Inn had been tamed, the railway had replaced shipping as a means of transport. The next major wave of engineering works on the Inn came in the second half of the 20th century. The Olympic Village, the motorway and settlements such as Sieglanger required space that had previously been withheld from the river in order to facilitate the economic miracle of the post-war period.

The smaller river that crosses Innsbruck was almost as important as the Inn. Where the Sill leaves the Sill Gorge today, the Sill Canal was created to supply the city with water. When the Counts of Andechs founded the market at the Inn bridge in 1180, the canal already existed, as the mill of Wilten Abbey in St. Bartlmä was already in operation. From here, the canal continued along the route Karmelitergasse, Adamgasse, Salurnerstraße, Meinhardstraße, Sillgasse, Ing.-Etzel-Straße to Pradler Brücke, where it reconnected with the Sill before flowing into the Inn. Initially intended primarily for fire protection, many businesses soon utilised the water flowing through the town to operate mills for power generation. It was not until the 1970s that the last parts of it disappeared after bombing damaged it during the Second World War.

The final geographical ingredient in the city's success story is the broad valley basin, which favoured Innsbruck's development. As the city grew and the population increased, so did the demand for food. While the farmers in the higher side valleys faced harsh conditions, the Inn Valley offered fertile soil and land for livestock farming and agriculture. Until the High Middle Ages, the Inn Valley was much more heavily forested. In the 13th century, as in many parts of Europe, the area around Innsbruck was subject to major and long-term human intervention in nature for economic purposes. Contrary to what is often portrayed, the Middle Ages were not a primitive time of stagnation. From the 12th century onwards, people no longer relied on prayers and God's grace to escape the effects of regularly occurring crop failures. Innovations such as three-field farming made it possible to feed the agriculturally unproductive urban population, known in modern parlance as the Overhead would call it. The reclamation of the land allowed the town to grow. The towns such as Schwaz, Hall and Innsbruck could not feed themselves, and considerable food imports were required, especially in the early modern period during the mining boom. In addition to meat, it was mainly wine that came to the county of Tyrol from abroad for a long time. Without the local farmers, however, Innsbruck would not have been able to survive. Corn, which Beda Weber considered worthy of mention in Innsbruck's cityscape as early as 1851, is still growing vigorously and even today gives large areas on the outskirts of the city an agricultural flavour.