Hofkirche, Innsbruck
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The Hofkirche (Court Church) is a Gothic church located in the Altstadt (Old Town) section of Innsbruck, Austria. The church was built in 1553 by Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) as a memorial to his grandfather Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), whose
cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
within boasts a remarkable collection of German
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
sculpture. The church also contains the tomb of
Andreas Hofer Andreas Hofer (22 November 1767 – 20 February 1810) was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover, who in 1809 became the leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the Napoleonic and Bavarian invasion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was subs ...
,
Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
's national hero. Although Maximilian's will had directed that he be buried in the castle chapel in
Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...
, it proved impractical to construct there the large memorial whose plans he had supervised in detail, and Ferdinand I as executor planned construction of a new church and monastery in Innsbruck for a suitable memorial. In the end, however, Maximilian's simple tomb remained in Wiener Neustadt and the Hofkirche serves as a cenotaph.


Church

The Hofkirche is located at Universitätsstraße 2, adjacent to the Hofburg in the Altstadt section of Innsbruck. The church was designed by architect Andrea Crivelli of
Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ce ...
in the traditional German form of a
hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...
, consisting of three
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
s with a setback three-sided choir, round and pointed arch windows, and a steep broken
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
. Its layered
buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
es reflect compromise of contemporary Renaissance design with German late Gothic style. Stonemasons Hieronymus de Longhi and Anton de Bol carved the fine Renaissance portal. The church interior contains galleries, high slender colonnettes of red marble with white stylized
Corinthian capital The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...
s, and a lectern. The gallery's original ribs made from
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
from
Mittenwald Mittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria. Geography Mittenwald is located approximately 16 kilometres to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is situated in the Valley of the River Isar, ...
have been preserved, but after the main vault was damaged by earthquake in the 17th century, it was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The high altar seen today was designed in 1755 by the Viennese court architect Nikolaus Pacassi, and decorated with a
crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
by the Viennese academic painter Johann Carl Auerbach, and bronze statues of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint
Teresa of Ávila Teresa of Ávila, OCD (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada; 28 March 15154 or 15 October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Active during t ...
by Innsbruck court sculptor Balthasar Moll (1768). The Renaissance organ (1560) is by Jörg Ebert of Ravensburg, and described locally as one of the five most famous organs in the world. Domenico Pozzo from
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
painted the organ panels. A side chapel, called the Silver Chapel (''Silberne Kapell''), was consecrated in 1578. It contains a silver altar to Mary incorporating three elephant tusks and three hundred kilos of ebony, and the tombs of Archduke Ferdinand II and his wife
Philippine Welser Philippine Welser (152724 April 1580) was the morganatic wife of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. She was granted the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhoh ...
—both by
Alexander Colyn Alexander Colyn (also spelt Colin or Colins; 1527 or 152917 August 1612) was a Flemish sculptor. Biography Colyn was born in Mechelen, Belgium. In 1563 he went, at the invitation of the emperor Ferdinand I, to Innsbruck, to work on the magnifi ...
.


Cenotaph

Emperor Maximilian's ornate black marble cenotaph occupies the center of the nave. Florian Abel, of the Prague imperial court, supplied a full-sized draft of the high tomb in the florid style of court Mannerism. Its construction took more than 80 years. The sarcophagus itself was completed in 1572, and the final embellishments—the kneeling emperor, the four virtues, and the iron grille—were added in 1584. Trento mason Hieronymus Longi directed construction of the tomb proper. The base of the tomb consists of Hagau marble, a Jurassic limestone found in the North Tyrol and used as a building stone throughout western Austria. The bronze relief frieze of trophies includes vases, suits of armor, weapons, shields, musical instruments, etc., and above that two rows of white marble reliefs. The 24 reliefs were created by the artist Alexander Colin, based on
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...
s from ''
The Triumphal Arch The ''Triumphal Arch'' (also known as the ''Arch of Maximilian I'', german: Ehrenpforte Maximilians I.) is a 16th-century monumental woodcut print commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The composite image was printed on 36 lar ...
'' (''Ehrenpforte'') by Albrecht Dürer, with four stone
bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s each on the tomb's ends, and eight on its longer sides. They depict events from Maximilian's life as follows: # Marriage of Maximilian to
Mary of Burgundy Mary (french: Marie; nl, Maria; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of ...
, 1477 # Victory over the French at the First Battle of Guinegate, 1478 # Recapture of Arras fortress, 1492 # Maximilian's coronation as King of the Romans in Aachen, 1486 # Victory of Archduke Sigmund of Tyrol over the Venetians at Calliano, 1487 # Maximilian's liberation of Vienna from Hungarian Rule, 1490 # Capture of Stuhlweissenburg, 1490 # Return of Maximilian's daughter Margarethe by the French King, 1493 # Retreat of the Turks from Croatia, 1493 # Alliance of the Holy League against France, 1494 # Maximilian's Wedding with
Bianca Maria Sforza Bianca Maria Sforza (5 April 1472 – 31 December 1510) was Queen of Germany and Italy, and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire as the third spouse of Maximilian I. She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by ...
, 1494 # Marriage of Philip the Fair to
Joanna of Castile Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad ( es, link=no, Juana la Loca), was the nominal Queen of Castile from 1504 and Queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was married by arrangement to P ...
, 1496 # Victory of Maximilian over the Bohemians near Regensburg, 1504 # Capture of
Kufstein Fortress The Kufstein Fortress (german: Festung Kufstein) is the main landmark of Kufstein, a town in Tyrol, Austria. It is sometimes wrongly referred to as ''Geroldseck Fortress''. It is on a hill commanding Kufstein proper. Kufstein Fortress is above sea ...
, 1504 # Subjugation of the Duke of Guelders, 1505 # Alliance of Cambrai against Venice, 1508 # Victory over Venice, 1509 # Return of Duke
Maximilian Sforza Maximilian Sforza (Italian: ''Massimiliano Sforza''; 25 January 1493 – 25 May 1530) was a Duke of Milan from the Sforza family, the son of Ludovico Sforza. He was installed as a ruler of Milan in 1512 after the capture of Milan by the Holy ...
to Milan, 1512 # Victory over the French at the Second Battle of Guinegate, 1513 # Maximilian and
King Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
meet at
Thérouanne Thérouanne (; vls, Terenburg; Dutch ''Terwaan'') is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located west of Aire-sur-la-Lys and south of Saint-Omer, on the D 157 and D 341 road junction. Loca ...
, 1513 # Defeat of the Venetians near Vicenza, 1513 # Capture of the Venetian Fortress of Murano, 1514 # Betrothal of Maximilian's grandson
Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...
to
Anne of Bohemia and Hungary Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (23 July 1503 – 27 January 1547), sometimes known as Anna Jagellonica, was Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary and Archduchess of Austria as the wife of King Ferdinand I (later Holy Roman Emperor). Ea ...
, 1515 # Defense of
Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
, 1516 The tomb is enclosed within a fine wrought iron grille created by Jörg Schmidhammer of the
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
court, based on a drawing by the Innsbruck painter Paul Trabel, and capped with statues of the four virtues and kneeling emperor cast in Mühlau from models by Alexander Colin.


Statues

The cenotaph is surrounded by 28 large bronze statues (200–250 cm) of ancestors, relatives and heroes. Their creation took place between 1502 and 1555, and occupied a number of artists including Christian Amberger, Albrecht Dürer, Jörg Kölderer, Jörg Polhamer the elder, Gilg Sesselschreiber, Ulrich Tiefenbrunn, and sculptors
Peter Vischer the Elder Peter Vischer the Elder (c. 1455January 7, 1529) was a German sculptor, the son of Hermann Vischer, and the most notable member of the Vischer Family of Nuremberg. Biography Peter was born in Nuremberg, where he also died. He became "master" in 1 ...
,
Hans Leinberger Hans Leinberger, sometimes given as Lemberger (c.1475/1480 – after 1531) was a Late Gothic sculptor from Altbayern, who worked in wood, metal and stone. Life and work His exact birthplace is unknown, as is the place and manner of his artis ...
, G. Löffler, Leonhart Magt, and
Veit Stoß Veit Stoss (also: ''Veit Stoß'' and ''Stuoss''; pl, Wit Stwosz; before 1450about 20 September 1533) was a leading German sculptor, mostly working with wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic and the Northern Renaiss ...
. Three of the statues are based on designs by Dürer. According to David Gass, one of many descendants of both Maximilian and Louis II of Hungary, the inclusion of the King Arthur and Godfrey of Bouillon statues was owing to Louis II's sister, Anna, the Queen of Bohemia's having married Ferdinand, Maximilian's grandson, and having brought her English heritage with her. Both men were said to have been her ancestors. The following list includes the statues (clockwise from the left of the altar), with the designer, sculptor, cast, and year of execution of each: # Joanna, Queen of Castile († 1555), # Ferdinand II, King of Aragon († 1516), # Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy († 1467), # Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy († 1477), # Cymburgis, Archduchess of Austria († 1429), # Margaret, Duchess of Savoy († 1530), # Bianca Maria Sforza, Holy Roman Empress († 1511), #
Sigismund, Archduke of Austria Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was List of rulers of Austria, Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled ov ...
(† 1496), # Arthur, King of Britain († 6th century), # Ferdinand I, King of Portugal († 1383), #
Ernest, Duke of Austria Ernest the Iron (; 1377 – 10 June 1424), a member of the House of Habsburg, ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1406 until his death. He was head of the Habsburg Leopoldian line from 1411. Biography E ...
(† 1424), # Theoderic the Great, King of the Ostrogoths († 526), #
Albert II, Duke of Austria Albert II (12 December 1298 – 16 August 1358), known as ''the Wise'' or ''the Lame'', a member of the House of Habsburg, was duke of Austria and Styria from 1330, as well as duke of Carinthia and margrave of Carniola from 1335 until his death ...
(† 1358), # Rudolph I, King of Germany († 1291), # Philip I, King of Castile († 1506), # Clovis I, King of the Franks († 511), # Albert II, King of Germany († 1439), # Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor († 1493), #
Leopold III, Margrave of Austria Leopold III (german: Luitpold, 1073 – 15 November 1136), known as Leopold the Good, was the Margrave of Austria from 1095 to his death in 1136. He was a member of the House of Babenberg. He was canonized on 6 January 1485 and became the patron ...
(† 1136), # Albert IV, Count of Habsburg († 1239), #
Leopold III, Duke of Austria Leopold III (1 November 1351 – 9 July 1386), known as the Just, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1365. As head and progenitor of the Leopoldian line, he ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Carinthia, Styr ...
(† 1386), #
Frederick IV, Duke of Austria Frederick IV (1382 – 24 June 1439), also known as Frederick of the Empty Pockets (german: Friedrich mit der leeren Tasche), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1402 until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian ...
with the Empty Pockets († 1439), # Albert I, King of Germany († 1308), #
Godfrey of Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (, , , ; 18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of princ ...
(† 1100), # Elizabeth of Luxembourg, Queen of Germany († 1443), # Mary, Duchess of Burgundy († 1482), #
Elizabeth of Carinthia, Queen of Germany Elisabeth of Carinthia (also known as Elisabeth of Tyrol; – 28 October 1312), was a Duchess of Austria from 1282 and Queen of the Romans from 1298 until 1308, by marriage to King Albert I of Habsburg. Life Born in Munich, Bavaria, she was t ...
(† 1313), # Kunigunde, Archduchess of Austria († 1520), The gallery contains 23 small statues (66–69 cm) of the Habsburg patron saints. They were designed by court painter Jörg Köldere around 1514/15, and carved into wood and then wax by Leonhard Magt. The church also once contained a number of busts of Roman emperors; 20 are now displayed in Schloß Ambras and one is in the
Bavarian National Museum The Bavarian National Museum (german: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, links=no) in Munich is one of the most important museums of decorative arts in Europe and one of the list of largest art museums in the world , largest art museums in Germany. ...
in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
.


Andreas Hofer tomb

Andreas Hofer Andreas Hofer (22 November 1767 – 20 February 1810) was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover, who in 1809 became the leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the Napoleonic and Bavarian invasion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was subs ...
,
Tirol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
's national hero, is also buried within the church. Sculptor Johann Nepomuk Schaller made his statue; Josef Klieber created the relief of the "Fahnenschwur" (Swearing on the flag) based on a sketch by Josef Martin Schärmer.


Gallery

File:Hofkirche Innsbruck 2.jpg, Hofkirche from Rennweg, looking east toward Jesuit Church File:Innsbruck 1 305.jpg, Interior File:Innsbruck 1 322.jpg, Cenotaph marble relief File:Orgel der Hofkirche.JPG, Organ loft File:Innsbruck 1 230.jpg, Andreas Hofer tomb


References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *


External links


Hofkirche official website


at Sacred Destinations
Hofkirche
{{Authority control 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Austria Roman Catholic churches completed in 1553 Buildings and structures in Innsbruck Monuments and memorials in Austria Tourist attractions in Innsbruck Museums in Innsbruck Religious museums in Austria 1553 establishments in Austria Establishments in the Princely County of Tyrol