A stone triumphal arch that holds joy and grief in a single span: a royal wedding carved on one face, the sudden death of an emperor mourned on the other.

A slender column of red Tyrolean marble rising from the middle of the grand boulevard, crowned by the Virgin Mary and raised in thanks for a war that never quite reached the city.

Innsbruck's glittering emblem, a late-Gothic oriel balcony crowned with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles. Emperor Maximilian I built it around 1500 to watch the spectacles unfolding in the square below.

A 51 metre medieval watchtower crowned by a green Renaissance onion dome, with a panoramic platform that gazes straight up at the Nordkette peaks.

Innsbruck's exuberant Baroque cathedral, where twin copper-domed towers crown an interior swirling with frescoes and a tiny, treasured Madonna by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The Habsburg residence at the heart of Innsbruck, where a late-Gothic palace of Emperor Maximilian I was reborn as a glittering Viennese Rococo court for Empress Maria Theresa. Its crowning glory is the Giant Hall, a ballroom of family portraits beneath a vast painted ceiling.

A solemn Renaissance church built to honour Emperor Maximilian I, where 28 towering bronze figures stand eternal guard over a magnificent tomb that holds no one at all.

The turquoise River Inn rushing beneath the bridge that gave Innsbruck its name, with a glowing row of pastel houses and the sheer wall of the Nordkette rising behind. It is the city's most photographed view, and the perfect place to end our walk.

Walk the stunning old town of innsbruck

Walk the stunning old town of innsbruck