In the city of Innsbruck, the capital of the Bundesland (federal state) in Tirol, western Austria

 Innsbruck is the meeting point of the past and the future in the heart of the Eastern Alps.

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(on the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass 30 km (19 mi.) to the south) Innsbruck is a renowned winter sports center; it is also one of the most popular tourist and health resorts and winter-sports centers in central Europe. (The Olympic Winter Games were held here in 1964 and 1976.) It also hosted the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics (and the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012.) A rail and market center, in the late 20th century several companies began producing precision electrical equipment and electronics in the city.

+ Innsbruck is the capital of the Bundesland (federal state) in Tirol, western Austria, on the Inn at the mouth of the Sill River in the Eastern Alps. First mentioned in 1180 as a small market town belonging to the Bavarian counts of Andech, it developed rapidly because of its strategic position at the junction of the great trade routes from Italy to Germany via the Brenner Pass, and from Switzerland and western Europe. The bridge (Brücke) over the Inn originally carried this traffic and gave the city its name and its insignia. Innsbruck was chartered in 1239, passed to the Habsburgs in 1363, and in 1420 became the capital of Tirol and the ducal residence under Frederick, the duke “of the empty pockets.” Napoleon gave the city to the kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, and during the War of Liberation four battles were fought around Berg Isel, a hill (2,461 feet [750 meters]) to the south, by Tirolian patriots led by Andreas Hofer against the Bavarians and the French.

+ One of the most famous buildings in Innsbruck is the Fürstenburg, with a balcony with a gilded copper roof. Other notable landmarks include the Hofburg (on the site of a 15th-century ducal residence) and the Franciscan, or Court, church, containing the mausoleum dedicated to Maximilian I and the tombs of Hofer and other Tirolian heroes. The university was founded by Emperor Leopold I in 1677, and its library was a gift of the empress Maria Theresa in 1745. There are four major museums: the Ferdinandeum, with prehistoric, industrial-art, and natural-history collections and a picture gallery; the Tirolean Folk Art Museum; the Museum of the Imperial Rifles; and parts of the collections of the archduke Ferdinand II, in the Castle Ambras.

+ Coveted by empires and republics throughout its history, Innsbruck was the seat of the imperial court of Maximilian I by the end of the 15th century. Explore the Tyrolean capital's history at Archduke Ferdinand II's 10th-century Schloss Ambras, the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, the 15th-century Imperial Palace and Maximilian I's famous Golden Roof.

+ Tyrol’s capital is a sight to behold. The rock spires of the Nordkette range are so close that within minutes it’s possible to travel from the city's heart to more than 2,000 meters above sea level and alpine pastures where cowbells chime.