Innsbruck - Maria-Theresien-Strasse and Side Streets

At the corner of Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Strasse and Meraner Strasse is the Altes Landhaus, a monumental Baroque palace (1725-28) with a sumptuous and elaborately articulated facade, which now houses the Provincial Assembly and Provincial Government (Landesregierung). In the courtyard between the two wings of the building stands a chapel.

The Landhaus was built by G.A. Gumpp.

Innsbruck's Alpensvereinsmuseum (Museum of the Alpine Association) is worth a visit. Exhibited are paintings and reliefs.

The museum holds an extensive collection of Alpine art, relief models of mountain ranges from throughout the Alps, articles showing the development of high Alpine cartography and historic Alpine equipment.

Adjoining Innsbruck's Altes Landhaus on the east, with its main front on Wilhelm-Greil-Strasse, stands the Neues Landhaus, built in 1938-40 in the style of the period.

Obliquely across from Innsbruck's Altes Landhaus stands the Servite Church, built in 1615 but with many later alterations. There is a fresco of the Holy Trinity near an oriel window on the outside wall, and inside are some finely carved pews (17th C.).

In the middle of Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Strasse, in front of the Rathaus (1849), stands the Annasäule (St Anne's Column), erected in 1706 to commemorate the withdrawal of Bavarian troops on St Anne's Day in 1703. The column is surmounted by a statue of the Virgin Mary; St Anna stands on the base near St George, the patron saint of Tirol, and other saints.

At the southern end of Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Strasse, against the backdrop of the jagged summits of the Serles group, towers the Triumphpforte (Triumphal Gateway), erected by Maria Theresa in 1765 on what was then the boundary of the city to mark the marriage of her son Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II) to the Spanish Infanta Maria Ludovica; the gateway was built with stone from the earlier St George's Gate, pulled down to make way for the new one. The marble reliefs (1774) on the southern side depict the wedding and those on the northern side lament the sudden death of the Emperor Francis I during the festivities.

To the south of Innsbruck's Neues Landhaus, in the spacious Landhausplatz, stands a 14m/46ft high Memorial to the events of 1945, with an inscription commemorating the dead ("In memoriam pro Austria mortuis").