Ambras Castle Innsbruck - Ticket

Ambras Castle counts amongst the most beautiful and important landmarks in Austria. It is conspicuously situated on a cliff at the outskirts of the Tyrolean capital city of Innsbruck in the middle of extensive castle grounds. Ambras Castle ranks among the most important sights in Austria and is a top destination in Tyrol.

Visit the first museum in the world that is still found in the same place it was established. Travel back in time 450 years and explore all of the different areas and gardens.

The Upper Castle:

Constructed around a rectangular interior court, the Upper Castle comprised four storeys and was conceived as a residential castle.

In the 1560s Archduke Ferdinand II caused the site to be redesigned into a Renaissance castle by the architects Giovanni and Alberto Lucchese. Even before the start of the rebuilding, Ferdinand II made a gift of the castle to his wife Philippine Welser to whom he was still secretly married. Until the Kunstkammer was erected in the 1570s, Ferdinand II housed his already widely famous collection of armour, weapons, portraits, objects of nature, curiosities, and precious objects in the Innsbruck Hofburg and in the Upper Castle.

The Castle Grounds:

During the lifetime of Archduke Ferdinand II, Ambras Castle possessed a large, wooded area. The terrain, sloping steeply to the east and today reminiscent of the original state with its cliffs, ravines, bridges, and an artificially laid out waterfall, served as a game park. In addition the castle possessed a richly appointed park, completed in 1574, with fishponds, aviaries, and its own garden houses in the pleasure garden.

The Lower Castle:

Ambras Castle with its collections is the only former princely collection of art that can still be visited at its original, historical site. While the so-called Upper Castle was conceived as a residential building, and was rebuilt and expanded into a Renaissance castle, in contrast the so-called Lower Castle, located to its south-west, was a new construction. The Armoury was distinguished from others of the time in that the collection was purposefully put together; its formation was due to a specific concept which integrated the interested public as well as the aesthetic aspects of light and colour. The Chamber of Art and Wonders.

In the Renaissance chambers of art and wonders were encyclopaedic universal collections that attempted to capture the entire knowledge of their era. The Chamber of Art and Wonders at Ambras Castle was already viewed in the sixteenth century as one of the most significant of its type.

MEETING POINT INSTRUCTIONS:

Post bus line 540 from Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof/main train station (via Kaiserschützenplatz – Olympiaworld – Tivoli Stadion) to Schloss Ambras.

AUDIOGUIDE: You can pick up your audio guide at the entrance ticket office. Languages: German, English, Italian, French.

Please note there is an extra charge for the audio guide payable locally