The Hofgarten

About this place

The Hofgarten extends north-east of the Hofburg palace in central Innsbruck, and is the largest green space in the centre — mature trees, lawns, ponds and paths, with the Nordkette mountains rising directly behind. Its history goes back to the fifteenth century, when it was a kitchen and pleasure garden for the archducal court. In the sixteenth century it became a Renaissance garden with geometric beds, then was redesigned in the nineteenth in the English manner: curving paths and free groups of trees instead of straight ranks, which is its present form. Its use today is entirely local: people from Innsbruck come to sit, read and run, and at its southern end a giant chessboard with pieces as tall as a child is played on by passers-by, one of the city's familiar sights. The garden is free and open, and combines naturally with the neighbouring Hofburg and Hofkirche.