About this place
Standing at the heart of the medieval Altstadt, the Golden Roof is the image every visitor carries home from Innsbruck. Its two-storey oriel projects from a sovereign's residence first raised by Archduke Friedrich IV in the early fifteenth century, but it was Emperor Maximilian I who transformed it into a statement of imperial splendour. Commissioned around 1493 from the court builder Nikolaus Turing the Elder and completed by 1500, the canopy is sheathed in 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles that flare gold whenever the alpine sun strikes them. Beneath that shimmer, the balustrades carry sculpted coats of arms, frescoes by Jorg Kolderer, and reliefs showing Maximilian flanked by his two wives, Bianca Maria Sforza and Maria of Burgundy, alongside lively Moorish dancers. The balcony was no mere ornament. It served as an imperial box from which the emperor and his court watched tournaments, festivals, and dances staged in the square at their feet.
Key facts
- 2657 tiles — Fire-gilded copper tiles cover the canopy, giving the roof its famous golden shimmer
- 1500 year — The oriel was completed for Emperor Maximilian I, around the turn of the sixteenth century
- 2 wives — A central relief shows Maximilian between Bianca Maria Sforza and his late first wife Maria of Burgundy
📍 Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 19, 6020, Innsbruck