The history of Schloss Ambras

Before Ferdinand

Ambras was a seat of the Counts of Andechs. That line ended in 1248 and the property passed to the Counts of Tyrol, and from them to the Habsburgs. Three centuries of ownership pass in a sentence because what survives on the hill today is overwhelmingly what came next.

Ferdinand II and the rebuilding, 1563 to 1567

Ferdinand II, 1529 to 1595, became sovereign of Tyrol in 1564 and had Italian architects turn the medieval castle into a Renaissance one between 1563 and 1567, for Philippine Welser, 1527 to 1580, whom he had married secretly. He entered Innsbruck in 1567. Her part of the story.

The building years

The Spanish Hall went up between 1569 and 1572. The Heldenrüstkammer followed in 1589. Between them they are the two strongest claims Ambras makes: a free-standing hall with 27 Tyrolean rulers on its walls, and a room described as the first systematic presentation of objects in the history of museums. The hall and the armouries.

1606, 1805, 1880

Ferdinand’s son sold the castle to Emperor Rudolf II in 1606. Leopold I later moved the manuscripts and books to Vienna, and the remaining collections were taken there in 1805. The castle became a museum in 1880. That last date is worth holding onto when you read the claims about the Kunst- und Wunderkammer: the argument is about the collection and its room, not about the ticket office. The oldest-museum question.

Who has it now

The Republic of Austria owns it, the KHM-Museumsverband runs it, the Burghauptmannschaft Österreich maintains the buildings and the Österreichische Bundesgärten keep the park. The ownership, unpicked.

See where the dates actually happened

The castle’s own admission covers the Kunstkammer, the armouries, the Spanish Hall of 1569, the bath and the glass, at around sixteen euros, which is the same figure the castle’s online shop asks and two euros under the price at the door.

Frequently asked questions