County of Tyrol

(Princely) County of Tyrol
(Gefürstete) Grafschaft Tirol  (German) Contea (principesca) del Tirolo  (Italian)
State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806), Crown land of the Habsburg Monarchy, of the Austrian Empire (from 1804) and of Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary (from 1867)
1140–1919
Flag Coat of arms
Map of the County of Tyrol (1799)
Capital		Meran, formally until 1848 Innsbruck, residence from 1420
Languages		Southern Bavarian
Government		Principality
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Created County	1140
•	Bequeathed to House of Habsburg	1363
•	Joined Austrian Circle	1512
•	Incorporated Trent and Brixen	1803
•	Restored to Austria	1814
•	Partitioned by Treaty of St Germain	September 10, 1919
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Bavaria Republic of German-Austria Kingdom of Italy

The County of Tyrol, from 1493: Princely County of Tyrol, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. Originally a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of the Counts of Tyrol, it was inherited by the Counts of Gorizia in 1253 and finally fell to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1363. In 1804 the Princely County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised Prince-Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen, became a crown land of the Austrian Empire in 1804 and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary.

Today the territory of the historic crown land is divided between the Italian autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and the Austrian state of Tyrol. Both parts are today associated again in the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion.

At least since German king Otto I had conquered the former Lombard kingdom of Italy in 961 and had himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, the principal passes of the Eastern Alps had become an important transit area. The German monarchs regularly travelled across Brenner or Reschen Pass on their Italian expeditions aiming at papal coronation or the consolidation of Imperial rule.