Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TYROL
History
Despite its difficult alpine terrain, Tyrol has been settled since the Neolithic age, verified
by the discovery of a 5400-year-old body of a man preserved in ice in the Ötztal Alps in
1991. The Brenner Pass (1374m), crossing into Italy, allowed the region to develop as a
north-south trade route.
Tyrol fell to the Habsburgs in 1363, but it wasn't until the rule of Emperor Maximilian I
(1490-1519) that the province truly forged ahead. He boosted the region's status by trans-
forming Innsbruck into the administrative capital and a cultural centre. In 1511 the emper-
or drew up the Landibell legislation, allowing Tyroleans to defend their own borders, thus
creating the
Schützen
(marksmen militia) which still exists today. When the last Tyrolean
Habsburg, Archduke Sigmund Franz, died in 1665, the duchy of Tyrol was directly ruled
from Vienna.
In 1703 the Bavarians attempted to capture Tyrol in the War of the Spanish Succession.
In alliance with the French, they reached the Brenner Pass before being beaten back by the
Schützen
. In 1805 Tyrol passed into Bavarian hands under Napoleon, a rule that was short-
lived and troublesome. In 1809 South Tyrolean innkeeper Andreas Hofer led a successful
fight for independence, winning a famous victory at Bergisel. The Habsburg monarchy did
not support his heroic stance and Tyrol was returned to Bavaria later that year.
The Treaty of St Germain (1919) dealt a further blow to Tyrolean identity; prosperous
South Tyrol was ceded to Italy and East Tyrol was isolated from the rest of the province.
A staunch ally of Mussolini, Hitler did not claim back South Tyrol when his troops in-
vaded Austria in 1938. In the aftermath of WWII, Tyrol was divided into zones occupied
by Allied forces until the country proclaimed its neutrality in 1955. Since then Tyrol has
enjoyed peace and prosperity, and tourism, particularly the ski industry, has flourished.
Getting There & Around
AIR
Lying 4km west of Innsbruck's city centre, Innsbruck Airport (
Click here
)
, caters to a
handful of national (Vienna and Graz) and international (London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt,
