Hofkirche - Innsbruck, Austria
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N 47° 16.107 E 011° 23.720
32T E 681188 N 5237779
The Hofkirche is a Gothic church located at Universitätsstraße 2, adjacent to the Hofburg in the Altstadt section of Innsbruck.
Waymark Code: WMX67J
Location: Tirol, Austria
Date Posted: 12/02/2017
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"Die farbigen Marketerien der Renaissance und des Manierismus mit eingepassten Gemälden in den Spiegelfeldern von Johann Baptist Fontana machen den Fürstenchor zu einem einzigartigen Meisterwerk. Der Fürstenchor und das Chorgestühl wurden 1562–1571 von Hans Waldner aus Ravensburg und Konrad Gottfried aus Schaffhausen in zwei Phasen in dem gerade fertiggestellten Bau der Hofkirche in Innsbruck ausgeführt." (
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The church was built in 1553 by Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) as a memorial to his grandfather Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), whose cenotaph within boasts a remarkable collection of German Renaissance sculpture. The church also contains the tomb of Andreas Hofer, the Tyrol's national hero.
Although Maximilian's will had directed that he be buried in the castle chapel in Wiener Neustadt, it proved impractical to construct there the large memorial whose plans he had supervised in detail, and Ferdinand I as executor planned the construction of a new church and monastery in Innsbruck for a suitable memorial. In the end, however, Maximilian's simple tomb remained in Wiener Neustadt and the Hofkirche serves as a cenotaph.
Emperor Maximilian's ornate black marble cenotaph occupies the center of the nave. Florian Abel, of the Prague imperial court, supplied a full-sized draft of the high tomb in the florid style of court Mannerism. Its construction took more than 80 years. The sarcophagus itself was completed in 1572, and the final embellishments—the kneeling emperor, the four virtues, and the iron grille—were added in 1584.
A side chapel, called the Silver Chapel (Silberne Kapell), was consecrated in 1578. It contains a silver altar to Mary incorporating three elephant tusks and three hundred kilos of ebony, and the tombs of Archduke Ferdinand II and his wife Philippine Welser—both by Alexander Colyn.
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