Lower Inn Valley

The Lower Inn Valley lies in western Austria where the Inn river widens into a broad valley floor between the Karwendel range and the foothills of the Alps. It stretches from just west of Innsbruck downstream to the Bavarian border near Kufstein, forming the Tyrolean segment of this lowland corridor. The valley floor is flat and heavily settled, with towns and villages linked by the A12 motorway and the Inn Valley railway line. This stretch of valley holds one of Austria’s most concentrated urban areas, where around 380,000 people live in a narrow belt of land. Innsbruck at the western end has the highest density, with more than 3,000 people per square kilometre, followed by Rum, Kufstein and Hall in Tirol. The valley’s wide floor and gentle slopes have long attracted industry as well as transport routes. Visitors find a landscape of low rolling hills and flat meadows beside the broad river. The motorway and railway run parallel through the valley, carrying traffic between Austria and Germany. Towns such as Hall in Tirol and Kufstein sit close to the river, their older centres surrounded by modern industrial estates. The contrast between the river’s wide gravel banks and the dense settlements along its edges shapes the valley’s everyday character.