Altstadt Innsbruck

About this audio guide

This guide to the Altstadt, Innsbruck's old town, follows a local stone called Höttinger Breccia from a free-quarrying law passed in thirteen fifty-seven to the earthquake that struck the valley more than three centuries later. You'll hear what struck the city's church towers in the small hours of one July night in sixteen seventy, and how builders answered with the same rock the town had been giving away since the Middle Ages. Look for the diagonal stone buttresses still leaning against the arcaded houses as you walk the old streets.