Chamber of Art and Curiosities, Ambras Castle

The Chamber of Art and Curiosities sits inside Ambras Castle, a 16th-century building raised by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, on a hill above Innsbruck. Ferdinand built the castle between 1572 and 1583 to house his collections and added a second storey in 1589. It is recognised as one of the world’s first purpose-built museums. The collection was arranged systematically, a new idea at the time. Today the castle still holds the original Kunstkammer, making it the oldest museum in continuous use. The cabinets contain armour, weapons, portraits, natural objects and scientific instruments. The Strasser Collection displays fine glassware from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Habsburg Portrait Gallery spans three floors and includes works by Hans Burgkmair, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Peter Paul Rubens and Diego Velázquez. The KHM-Museumsverband in Vienna now administers the collections. Visitors find rooms filled with rarities such as a woodcarving of Death by Hans Leinberger, samurai armour, coral collections and mechanical clocks. Paintings show unusual subjects like Gregor Baci, who survived a lance wound to the face, and Vlad Ţepeş rendered as a psychogram of evil. A portrait of a man with disabilities, once hidden behind red paper, depicts a court jester with withered limbs. Another canvas shows Petrus Gonsalvus and his hairy children, whose condition became known as Ambras syndrome.