Tyrolean Landscapes

Tirol - the heart of the Alps

St. Petersberg near Silz, Imst-District

St. Petersberg near Silz, Imst-District


Martinsbühel near Zirl. Tirolmitte. "Alps - after the storm". Third prize in the contest Focus.pl 2009.


Inn Valley - Tirolmitte. View from Möser.


West Innsbruck. View from Vösl

View from castle window at Martinswand and Zirl

Zirl view from Fragenstein ruins. Tirolmitte

Mieminger Plateau. Tirolmitte.
Alps in autumn




Mieminger Plateau, Tirolmitte

Volders - view from Castle Friedberg


Volders - view from Castle Aschach. Unterinntal
An ideal place for dating...


Tyrolean animals
"Blind date?"
Not far from Telfs, Innsbruck-Land. View on Hohe Munde (2663m).

Mieminger Plateau

Peeping Tom?

Wildermieming, Tirolmitte.

Martinsberg - Emperor Maximilian I' hunting castle

Hunting castle Martinsberg lies in Martinsbühel and the famous tyrolean climbing wall Martinswand not far from Zirl and Kematen.



Mentioned for the first time in 1290, in connection with Heinrich von Aufenstein, Ludwig von „sant Marteinsberg bei Zierlen" investments. Then castle Martinsberg belonged to the Duke Meinhard II.



In 1363 countess Margaret Maultasch of Tirol gave the castle Martinsberg to Habsburgs family. Often frequented here after hunting Friedrich IV, Siegmund der Münzreiche and Emperor Maximilian I. In the 18th century the Habsburgs sold castle Martinsberg to farmers.

Castle Martinsberg on the old illustrations.








Around the castle Martinsberg you can admire the sculptures by Ferdinand Lackner - see separate entry.

Stams - Cystercian Monastery - the spiritual centre of Tyrol

Stams in the Oberinntal has a long tradition and is of supra-regional scale importance.

Stams by night


The Cistercian abbey in Stams, with its striking baroque onion domes, was founded by the Tyrolean Count Meinhard II (1273) and has been the spiritual centre of the region.

...and by day


Stams Monastery (in German "Stift Stams") - Cistercian monastery in Stams in the Austrian Tyrol.
Founded in 1273 by Count Meinhard II and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria for the Cistercians from Kaisheim. Became the burial place of the rulers of the Tyrol, through many donations and transformed into the economic center of the region.
Monastery declined significantly in the sixteenth century after the Reformation, the Peasant War of 1525, looting in 1552 by troops of Maurice of Saxony and a fire in 1593. Survived then only about three monks. It was rebuilt in the early seventeenth century. And in the first half of the eighteenth century, received a Baroque decor, by Georg Anton Gumpp, Johann Georg Wolcker and Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer. Minster comes from the 1284.




In 1807 - during the napoleon's wars - Bavarian government dissolved the monastery, but was revived in 1816 by the Austrian Emperor Francis I. From 1938 to 1939 the Nazis occupied the monastery buildings for a point to the people from South Tyrol. The monks returned to Stift Stams until 1945. In 1984, Pope John Paul II raised the church of the Basilica minor.
In the crypt of the monastery are buried members of the Habsburg dynasty, who ruled Tyrol: Frederick IV Habsburg, Sigismund Habsburg and others.

Tyrolean balconies, windows and frescoes

The paradise begins outside the window...

Seefeld, Oberinntal

Seefeld, Oberinntal

Seefeld, Oberinntal

Seefeld, Oberinntal

Seefeld, Oberinntal

Zirl, Hotel Tirolis, Tirolmitte

Hotel Tirolis

Zirl, Gasthof

Telfs, City Hall

Telfs, Banhof Str.

Telfs, Untermarktstr

This is my house
but not my...
...Tell me who is the owner
This house
Telfs, St. Georgen

Telfs, Einberger Str.

Telfs, Untermarkt Str.

Telfs, St. Georgen - Tabak

Silz, Imst District

Pettnau, Municipal Office

Pettnau, Municipal Office

Kematen, Tirolmitte

Kematen, Tirolmitte

Kematen, Tirolmitte

Telfs - Lehen

Telfs - Heart of Tirolmitte

The market town of Telfs is situated 27 km west of Innsbruck in a basin-like wide gap within the Inntal. Telfs, the most populous settlement in the Oberinntal, is located at the western fringe of the political district of Innsbruck-Land.

Due to its over dimensional expansion, Telfs has become the third largest municipality of Land Tyrol. Situated at an important intersection (Inntal, Fernpass, Seefelder Depression), Telfs has long been a market centre and reloading point for goods.

800 year old house

Next to the compact centre of the market town, new housing estates have developed at the foot of the Hohe Munde Mountain. Telfs was once a centre of the textile industry in this region. The factory building of the cotton spinner company Jenny&Schindler has remained as a striking example from this epoch.



Untermarkt - Main Street


Hohe Munde


Telfs, the birth house of the painter Anton Zoller


Anton Zoller, * 1695.2.4 in Telfs, + 1768.4.16 in Hall in Tyrol. Baroque painter - frescoes, plafons and church altars. Works: Castle Trabuschgen bei Obervellach (1729), St. Michael am Zollfeld; Tyrol: Stift Stams (1722), Pfarrkirchen in Telfes und Schmirn (1757), Gschnitz und Mutters (1759), Patsch (1767); Altarbilder: Anras, Inzing.
Father Franz Karl Josef und Anton Zoller.
Town Hall


Interalpen-Hotel - 5-star hotel the most beautiful spa in the Alps. Height - 1340 meters.
Hohe Munde - view from Ineralpen, early morning.


Interalpen inside


Telfs, new architecture

Telfer Fastnacht.

The sculpture showing the situation of a divided Tyrol.

Photos from Telfs also in part "Churches", "Springs" and "Castles".

Andreas Hofer

The greatest hero of 1809 Tyrolean War of Liberation.



Andreas Hofer, the greatest Tyrolean patriot, born at St. Leonhard in Passeyrthale, Tyrol, 22 Nov., 1767; executed at Mantua, 20 Feb., 1810.
In 1805/06, Tyrol was ceded to Bavaria, (ie came under Napoleon's control). Tirolean Catholics were oppressed, and this led to the beginnings of a revolt, lead largely by Tirol farmers and peasants.



In South Tyrol, lived an innkeeper, named Andreas Hofer, a big-bearded, barrel chested man, a Tyrol patriot. In January 1809, he attended a meeting in Vienna, along with other civic leaders, where the key issue was how to fight back against Napoleonic control. Hence, all over Tyrol, farmers, peasants, workers organised themselves into groups. The method of communication, was a meeting in the local stuble, after church on a Sunday.
On April 10, 1809, Andreas Hofer gave the signal by the lighting of fires on the mountain tops, so by that night, the whole of Tyrol knew. Two days later, at 5.00am, 15,000 Tyrolese poured down from the mountains into Innsbruck, and in one day, General Bisson surrendered the town to Hofer. A few days later, the Austrian army arrived, and took control, releasing the farmers back to their lands. However, within a few weeks the army had been routed by the returning French. All went calm, and the Emporer again gave Tyrol back to the French.



On the 25th May, Hofer struck again, this known as the First Bergisel battle, and there was no conclusion, as a violent thunderstorm had an effect. More Austrian rifle brigades were involved, and several local commanders emerged, including Josef Speckbacher, from Hall, near Innsbruck. The Wildschonau Sturmloden, (rifle brigade, made up of farmers, and other workers) was lead by Major Jacob Margreiter, from Oberau.

First Battle against Bavarians - Sterzing, paint by Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Ferdinandeum Innsbruck.



Four days later, the Second Bergisel battle was launched at Innsbruck. The Bavarians retreated, regrouped and by 12 July there was an armistice. Again, to protect Austria, Emporer Franz ceded Tyrol.

On 13th August, the Third Bergisel battle commenced. There were 15,000 Tyroleans, and 15,000 Bavarians, Saxons and French. On each occasion, the Tyroleans fought from the mountain heights. By evening, Tyrol had won, and the Napoleonic troops were retreating down the Inn valley. Within five days, the French and their allies had been chased from Tyrolean soil by the weary but passionate farmers. Hofer was elected Oberkommandent of Tyrol, and took up office in the Hofburg, in Innsbruck.

But there had been huge financial and social problems. The fighters had farms to run, and undoubtedly has lost out on a personal and family level. Tyrol had been weakened, and thus the events of 19th October took place, in the Wildschonau.

By the end of October, Napoleons troops were back in Innsbruck, this time with heavy artillery. On 11 November, the Fourth, and final Bergisel battle was launched, and the Tyroleans were heavily defeated. Over 40 battles had been fought along the Inn valley, between Kufstein castle and Innsbruck in the seven month period in 1809. Andreas Hofer was caught and on the direct orders of Napoleon, shot in Feb 1810.



Josef Spechbacher, Major Jacob Margreiter, and Bathasar Bletzacher, a horseman, probably from Alpbach, gathered with other riflemen, in the front stuble of the Gasthof Sollerer, in Thierbach, high above the meandering Wildsconau valley. The front room has old wood panelled walls, is furnished with rough wooden trestle table and benches, an ancient single hand clock, heat emitting from the green Kachleoven. Light emerges from smoky yellow oil lights, hung round the room walls. The snow softly fell in the darkness outside.

In the corner of the room, to the left of the door, as you enter from the hallway, is a drop-down table, hinged at the wall, and with a single fold-down leg. It is painted black, contrasting with the darkened pine walls. Joseph Spechbacher sat at the table, with Margreiter, and he wrote a letter, addressed to all Tyroleans, in the name of Jesu and Maria, die Mutter Gottes, Andreas Hofer, that the Emporer might grant perpetual freedom to all his subjects, and imploring Tyroleans to continue the fight.

The document has passed into folklore, and is called "Die Freiheitkamf". The handwritten original is in the war museum in Munich.
Obviously, the Freiheit did not achieve it's intended effect. But locally, and throughout Tyrol, all the characters remain folk heroes.

The text by Dave Mac: www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/user/profile/20110.page

All paints and postmarks: Ferdinandeum museum in Innsbruck, Austria

Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck

INNSBRUCK
Tyrolean Provincial Museum (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum),

Medieval stained glass windows.



Founded in 1823, this fascinating natural history museum has exhibits devoted to cartography, hunting, mineralogy, mining, technology, zoology, geology, botany, and entomology. The museum also features Austria's largest collection of Gothic art, as well as work from the 19th and 20th centuries. An extensive library complements the collection. There's also material related to the 1809 Tyrolean War of Liberation.




Reliefs from the Golden Roof in Innsbruck. Break of the Gothic and Renaissance styles.