Ambras Castle

A Renaissance castle at 632 metres in the hills above Innsbruck, built in the sixteenth century on the site of a tenth-century castle that had been the seat of the Counts of Andechs. Archduke Ferdinand II ordered the medieval fortress turned into a Renaissance residence as a gift for his wife Philippine Welser, and lived here from 1567 to 1595. He was among the most prominent collectors in history, and housed his collections in a Lower Castle built expressly as a museum, which makes Ambras one of the oldest museums in the world. Its armouries hold masterpieces of European armour.