Editing Innsbruck (section)

== History ==
===Antiquity===
The earliest traces suggest initial inhabitation in the early [[Stone Age]]. Surviving [[Ancient Rome|pre-Roman]] place names show that the area has been populated continuously. In the 4th century the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] established the army station Veldidena (the name survives in today's urban district Wilten) at '''Oenipons''' (Innsbruck), to protect the economically important commercial road from [[Verona]]-[[Brenner, South Tyrol|Brenner]]-[[Augsburg]] in their province of [[Raetia]].

The first mention of Innsbruck dates back to the name ''Oeni Pontum'' or ''Oeni Pons'' which is [[Latin]] for bridge (pons) over the Inn (Oenus), which was an important crossing point over the Inn river. The Counts of [[County of Andechs|Andechs]] acquired the town in 1180.<ref> {{citation|surname1=Martin Bitschnau, Hannes Obermair|title=Tiroler Urkundenbuch, II. Abteilung: Die Urkunden zur Geschichte des Inn-, Eisack- und Pustertals. Vol. 2: 1140–1200|publisher=Universitätsverlag Wagner|publication-place=Innsbruck |at=pp.&nbsp;281ff, no. 758|isbn=978-3-7030-0485-8|date=2012|language=German
}}</ref> In 1248 the town passed into the hands of the [[County of Tyrol|Counts of Tyrol]].<ref>Chizzali. ''Tyrol: Impressions of Tyrol''. (Innsbruck: Alpina Printers and Publishers), p. 5.</ref> The city's arms show a bird's-eye view of the Inn bridge, a design used since 1267. The route over the [[Brenner Pass]] was then a major transport and communications link between the north and the south of Europe, and the easiest route across the [[Alps]]. It was part of the [[Via Imperii]], a medieval imperial road under special protection of the king. The revenues generated by serving as a transit station on this route enabled the city to flourish.

===Early history===
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - View of Innsbruck - WGA7356.jpg|thumb|left|''View of Innsbruck'' by [[Albrecht Dürer]], 1495 (from the north)]]
Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429 and in the 15th century the city became a centre of European politics and culture as Emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] also resided in Innsbruck in the 1490s. The city benefited from the emperor's presence as can be seen for example in the [[Hofkirche, Innsbruck|Hofkirche]]. Here a funeral monument for Maximilian was planned and erected partly by his successors. The ensemble with a [[cenotaph]] and the bronze statues of real and mythical ancestors of the [[Habsburg|Habsburg emperor]] are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck.{{cn|date=May 2025}} A regular postal service between Innsbruck and [[Mechelen]] was established in 1490 by the [[Thurn-und-Taxis-Post]].

[[File:Schloß Ambras (Merian).jpg|thumb|[[Ambras Castle]], 1679]]
In 1564 [[Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria]] received the rulership over [[Tyrol]] and other [[Further Austria]]n possessions administered from Innsbruck up to the 18th century. He had [[Schloss Ambras]] built and arranged there his unique Renaissance collections nowadays mainly part of Vienna's [[Kunsthistorisches Museum]]. Up to 1665 a [[wikt:stirps#Noun|stirps]] of the Habsburg dynasty ruled in Innsbruck with an independent court. In the 1620s the first opera house north of the Alps was erected in Innsbruck (Dogana).

The university was founded in 1669. Also as a compensation for the court as Emperor [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold I]] again reigned from Vienna and the Tyrolean stirps of the Habsburg dynasty had ended in 1665.{{clarify|date=July 2015}}

[[File:Combat du Bergisel.jpg|thumb|left|''Victory of Andreas Hofer at Bergisel'', by [[Franz Defregger]]]]
During the [[Napoleonic Wars]] Tyrol was ceded to [[Bavaria]], ally of France. [[Andreas Hofer]] led a Tyrolean peasant army to victory in the [[Battles of Bergisel]] against the combined Bavarian and French forces, and then made Innsbruck the centre of his administration. The combined army later overran the Tyrolean [[militia]] army, Hofer was [[Executed by firing squad|fusilladed]] for his role and became a [[martyr]] for the locals, his remains were returned to Innsbruck in 1823 and interred in the Franciscan church.

[[File:Gustav Wilhelm Kraus Innsbruck 19Jh.jpg|thumb|View of Innsbruck in the 19th century]]
Afterwards, until 1814 Innsbruck was part of Bavaria. The [[Vienna Congress]] restored the Austrian rule over the city. Innsbruck played a part during the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire|revolution of 1848 in Austria]]. In May of that year, riots in Vienna made Emperor [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand]] to move the seat of government temporarily to the city. It remained part of the [[Austrian monarchy]] (Austria side after the [[compromise of 1867]]) as one of the 4 autonomous towns in [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]], the centre of the identically named district, one of the 21 ''[[Bezirkshauptmannschaften]]''.<ref>Wilhelm Klein (1967), ''Die postalischen Abstempelungen auf den österreichischen Postwertzeichen-Ausgaben 1867, 1883 und 1890''.</ref>

During World War I, the only recorded action taking place in Innsbruck was near the end of the war. On 20 February 1918, Allied planes flying out of Italy raided Innsbruck, causing casualties among the Austrian troops there. No damage to the town is recorded.<ref>Reynolds, Churchill, et al. ''The Story of the Great War'', vol. 14. (New York: Collier and Son, 1919)</ref> In November 1918 Innsbruck and all Tyrol were occupied by the 20 to 22 thousand soldiers of the [[III Army Corps (Italy)|III Corps of the First Italian Army]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.agiati.it/UploadDocs/12255_Art_20_di_michele.pdf |title=Trento, Bolzano e Innsbruck: l'occupazione militare italiana del tirolo (1918–1920) |access-date=22 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822222302/http://www.agiati.it/UploadDocs/12255_Art_20_di_michele.pdf |archive-date=22 August 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1929, the first official [[Austrian Chess Championship]] was held in Innsbruck.

===Annexation and World War II===
{{Main|Bombing of Innsbruck in World War II}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1985-083-11, Anschluss Österreich, Innsbruck.jpg|thumb|Some residents of Innsbruck welcomed the German troops after the ''[[Anschluss]]'' on 13 March 1938]]
In 1938 Austria was annexed by [[Nazi Germany]] in the ''[[Anschluss]]''. During [[World War II]], Innsbruck was the location of two subcamps of the [[Dachau concentration camp]], including a special camp for prominent people from 16 countries and their families, who were held as hostages, including former [[Prime Minister of France]] [[Léon Blum]], former [[regent of Hungary]] [[Miklós Horthy]], former Chancellor of Austria [[Kurt Schuschnigg]], Italian general [[Giuseppe Garibaldi II]] and a nephew of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Megargee|first=Geoffrey P.|year=2009|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume I|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=484–485|isbn=978-0-253-35328-3}}</ref> Between 1943 and April 1945, Innsbruck experienced twenty-two [[strategic bombing during World War II|air raids]] and suffered heavy damage.

===Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino===
In 1996, the European Union approved further cultural and economic integration between the Austrian province of [[Tyrol (federal state)|Tyrol]] and the Italian autonomous provinces of [[South Tyrol]] and [[Trentino]] by recognizing the creation of the [[Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino]].