Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle
Schloss Ambras
Innsbruck, Austria
Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, Austria
Ambras Castle
Coordinates	47°15′22″N 11°26′04″E / 47.256111°N 11.434444°E / 47.256111; 11.434444
Type	Castle
Site history
Built	1563 (1563)

Ambras Castle (German: Schloss Ambras Innsbruck) is a Renaissance castle and palace located in the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. Ambras Castle is 587 metres (1,926 ft) above sea level. Considered one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Tyrol, Ambras Castle was built in the 16th century on the spot of an earlier 10th-century castle, which became the seat of power for the Counts of Andechs. The cultural and historical importance of the castle is closely connected with Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) and served as his residence from 1563 to 1595. Ferdinand was one of history’s most prominent collectors of art. The princely sovereign of Tyrol, son of Emperor Ferdinand I, ordered that the mediaeval fortress at Ambras be turned into a Renaissance castle as a gift for his wife Philippine Welser. The cultured humanist from the House of Habsburg accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, making Castle Ambras Innsbruck the oldest museum in the world.

The Lower Castle contains armouries feature masterpieces of the European armourer’s art from the time of Emperor Maximilian I to Emperor Leopold I. As the only Renaissance Kunstkammer of its kind to have been preserved at its original location, the "Kunst- und Wunderkammer" (Chamber of Art and Curiosities) represents an unrivalled cultural monument.

Above the Lower Castle is the famous Spanish Hall (Spanische Saal), a notable example of German Renaissance architecture, which contains an intricate wood-inlay ceiling and walls adorned with 27 full-length portraits of the rulers of Tyrol. The Upper Castle contains an extensive portrait gallery featuring paintings of numerous members of the House of Habsburg.

Long before Innsbruck became a city, references to an Amras or Omras appeared in documents dating from the 10th century. This early fortification in what was then the southwest corner of Bavaria was the seat of power of the Counts of Andechs, who became Margraves of Istria and later Dukes of the short-lived Imperial State of Merania from 1180 to 1248. This original fortification was destroyed in 1133 and no traces of it remain, although some of the material from the original structure was later used in the modern building. In 1248, the castle ruins and property passed by inheritance from the Counts of Andechs to Count Albert IV of Tyrol.