Hofkirche

The Hofkirche stands in Innsbruck’s Old Town as a Gothic hall church built in 1553 by Emperor Ferdinand I to honour his grandfather Maximilian I. It occupies a quiet corner near the Hofburg palace, its steep roof and layered buttresses showing the blend of late Gothic and early Renaissance styles. The church’s three naves lead to a three-sided choir, with round and pointed windows piercing the stone walls. Inside, the nave centres on Maximilian’s black marble cenotaph, a project that took more than eighty years to complete. Bronze statues of ancestors and heroes line the space, their figures cast between 1502 and 1555 by artists including Albrecht Dürer and Veit Stoß. High above, the Baroque high altar by Nikolaus Pacassi holds a crucifixion painted by Johann Carl Auerbach and bronze figures by Balthasar Moll. A side chapel, the Silver Chapel, contains a silver altar made from elephant tusks and ebony, with tombs of Archduke Ferdinand II and his wife Philippine Welser. The Renaissance organ by Jörg Ebert of Ravensburg, decorated by Domenico Pozzo, is counted among the world’s finest. Visitors walk past the ornate grille around the cenotaph, its ironwork topped by statues of the four virtues and a kneeling emperor.