Innsbruck

Sister cities

• Kraków

History

The earliest traces suggest initial inhabitation in the early Stone Age. Surviving pre-Roman place names show that the area has been populated continuously. In the 4th century the 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-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 Andechs acquired the town in 1180. In 1248 the town passed into the hands of the Counts of Tyrol. 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. 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 also resided in Innsbruck in the 1490s. The city benefited from the emperor's presence as can be seen for example in the 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 emperor are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck. A regular postal service between Innsbruck and Mechelen was established in 1490 by the…

Geography

Innsbruck has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) since it has at least one month with a mean temperature below 0 °C (32 °F). Innsbruck has a larger annual temperature differences than most of Central Europe due to its location in the centre of the Continent and its position around mountainous terrains. Winters are often cold or very cold (colder than those of all major Western European cities, as well as most Central European cities) and snowy, although the foehn wind sometimes brings pronounced thaws, despite the warming effect not being as extreme as is common in Salzburg. Spring is brief; days start to get warm, often over , but nights remain cool or even freezing. Summer is highly variable and unpredictable. Days can be cool and rainy, or sunny and extremely hot, sometimes hitting . In summer, as expected for an alpine-influenced climate, the diurnal temperature variation is often very high as nights usually remain cool, being on average, but sometimes dipping as low as . The average annual temperature is . {{Weather box|location= Innsbruck University (1971–2000) |metric first= Y |single line= Y |collapsed = yes |Jan record high C = 19.8 |Feb record high C = 19.1 |Mar record high C = 24.8 |Apr record high C = 27.1 |May record high C = 32.3 |Jun record high C = 34.1 |Jul record high C = 37.4 |Aug record high C = 35.5 |Sep record high C = 31.6 |Oct record high C = 25.8 |Nov record high C = 20.9 |Dec record high C = 16.9 |year record high C = 37.4 |Jan high C = 3.7 |Feb high C = 6.5 |Mar high C = 11.5 |Apr high C = 15.2 |May high C = 20.5 |Jun high C = 22.8 |Jul high C = 24.9 |Aug high C = 24.5 |Sep high C = 20.8 |Oct high C = 15.7 |Nov high C = 8.1 |Dec high C = 3.8 |year high C = 14.8 |Jan mean C = -0.9 |Feb mean C = 0.9 |Mar mean C = 5.2 |Apr…

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2021-10-03
  5 km NNE of Silandro, Italy
• M 3.7 — 2021-08-16
  1 km S of Niederau, Austria
• M 3.6 — 2020-08-08
  5 km SE of Gramais, Austria
• M 3.8 — 2019-10-22
  4 km SE of Ebbs, Austria
• M 2.5 — 2017-11-20
  3 km SE of Medraz, Austria
• M 3.5 — 2017-11-03
  2 km N of Telfes im Stubai, Austria