Schloss Ambras Innsbruck

Schloss Ambras, at Schlossstrasse 20 in the Amras district of eastern Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria, is a Renaissance castle that Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol transformed from a medieval fortress into a princely residence from 1564. The archduke, a younger son of Emperor Ferdinand I, lived here with his wife Philippine Welser, a commoner from Augsburg whose marriage was kept secret for years. Ferdinand gathered a large collection of armour, portraits, books, natural objects and works of art, and he housed it in purpose-built rooms.

The most important part of the complex is the Chamber of Art and Curiosities (Kunst- und Wunderkammer), arranged by material and type in cabinets, which survives largely in its original 16th-century setting and is considered the oldest museum collection of its kind. It includes goldsmith work, glass, clocks, scientific instruments, curiosities and the so-called Ambras armour, also known for the Armoury with its historic suits of armour. The Spanish Hall, a Renaissance banqueting hall with a coffered ceiling and painted frieze, is among the finest of its type north of the Alps, and the Lower Castle houses the portrait gallery of Habsburgs, including famous images of Vlad III and the Tyrolean 'Tyrolean giant' Bartlmä Bon.

The curatorial approach mixes historic displays, preserved in the room where Ferdinand arranged them, with modern galleries for art and portraiture. The surrounding park was laid out as a Renaissance garden and was later redesigned in the English landscape style in the 19th century. After Ferdinand's death in 1595 the castle declined, and its collection was moved to Vienna in 1806 before many pieces were returned. Restoration and museum work in the 20th and 21st centuries have conserved the buildings, and the castle is today run as a museum.