Touring Innsbruck
We awoke this morning to snow, and this is a view of Old Town Innsbruck from the window of our hotel room:
The building in the background with the clock on it is "City Tower". You can tour it, and that's on the agenda for tomorrow.
We decided to spend this day visiting some other points of interest in Innsbruck.
We had one disappointment: the Imperial Palace near our hotel is closed for maintenance for 3 weeks and not available for tours currently. However, we found two other interesting things to see in Innsbruck.
First, we visited the Golden Roof Museum. This has exhibitions about Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) and his times, and it was surprisingly interesting. Maximilian I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death.
With the Golden Roof, he created a masterpiece of art and architecture that has become a landmark of Innsbruck.
Around 1500 Maximilian had the golden roof added to the southern facade of the Neuhof, which was built starting in 1420. The location was chosen to impress.
This is what "The Golden Roof" looks like from the outside, and it is made of real gold:
Maximilian and his wife used to stand on the top balcony and be entertained by the goings-on in the square, including male dancers, who are featured on 4 of the reliefs on the building:
We were quite entertained by these reliefs. Here is a painting of a separate tower from Maximilian I's time. Maximilian was a great uniter of Europe through expansion of the Hapsburg dynasty. He did this through marriages, declarations, and wars. The coats of arms on this tower represented all the regions of Europe he controlled, or intended to control.
We had a memorable lunch of Tagliatelle Salmon at Mamma Mia's, then we drove to our second destination: Ambras Castle.
The Archduke Ferdinand II (1529-1595), son of Emperor Ferdinand I, ordered that the medieval fortress at Ambras be turned into a Renaissance castle as a gift for his wife, Philippine Welser. He accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, making Ambras Castle Innsbruck the oldest museum in the world.
Ferdinand was one of history's most prominent collectors of art. The armories feature masterpieces of art from the time of Emperor Maxilmilian I to Emperor Leopold I. As the only Renaissance museum of its kind to have been preserved in its original location, the castle's Chamber of Arts and Wonders represents an unrivaled cultural monument.
The grounds of the castle were pretty:
Right off the bat, in the first exhibit, there were spears that were begging to be touched! I came close, but did not touch. The only reason why: a worker was standing right next to this exhibit and I was admonished! They must have received a tip that we were coming!
Brock was in the mood to see some armor. We came to the right place! Ferdinand had a huge collection of armor. There was some Spanish-style armor:
Armor that was used in Ferdinand's wedding:
Armor that was used for jousting:
An army of armor:
Even armor for midgets and a giant. Really, Ferdinand II had a giant that he kept at court, Bartelma Bon (over 8-1/2 feet tall) and that was his armor!:
Check out the ceiling in this room:
Brock appreciated this painting of Admirals admiring their fleet after winning a great naval battle:
There was even a original portrait of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506):
I didn't know that he had such tiny feet!
Brock felt an affinity to this painting for some odd reason:
Perhaps it had something to do with the man's name:
The castle had its own chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas:
This door caught our attention:
This horn was used by postmen to announce the arrival of the mail. There were penalties for blowing the horn inappropriately. Brock believes I would have been much penalized since I too oft toot my own horn!
On the grounds there were quite a few peacocks that were happy to pose for me:
Have you ever seen a white peacock before? Me neither! There were two here.
We did a little bit more shopping in the Old Town, then wrapped up our evening with dinner at the hotel.