Medieval power
The Duomo of Trento is a superb example of the power and sobriety of the Lombard Romanesque style, which can be seen in the crenellated silhouette of the bell tower. A sense of purity is also found in the church of Zell am See, which impresses by the calm that emanates from its harmonious volumes. This sobriety was followed by a gothic style with mystical and heraldic motifs in frescoes, paintings and wood carvings of superb polychromy. Cross or star vaults, stylized door and window frames and ornaments in relief also characterize this Tyrolean Gothic style. The parish church in Kötschach with the vault of its nave, whose graceful lines evoke floral motifs; the church of St. Andreas in Laas with the ribbed vault of its main nave, which becomes a star-shaped nave in the choir area; the parish church in Rattenberg with its beautiful pink marble blockwork and stylized capitals, or the parish church
in Schwaz with its pointed vaulted cloister galleries, are among the masterpieces of this Gothic style. You will notice that the number of naves in Tyrolean churches is always even... with the exception of the Franciscan church in Schwaz which, with its three naves, is a strict interpretation of the building rules imposed by the religious order. The castle of Bruck preserves very beautiful examples of its medieval origin, in particular its Knights' Hall with its ceiling with beams and joists still bearing the mark of superb polychrome decorations. The fortress of Berneck with its gothic corbelled portal and the castle of Landeck, both located on the old Roman road, also bear witness to this defensive effervescence. In the Italian Tyrol, don't miss the legendary Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, which includes the 13th century Castel Vecchio; the powerful crenellated silhouette of Castelbello Castle; or Brunico Castle. In the shadow of these fortresses and surrounding walls are charming villages with medieval urbanism made up of narrow streets, flights of stairs and vaulted passages leading to squares that are the center of the city. Of all the towns in Tyrol, Hall in Tyrol is probably the one that has best preserved this urbanism. Look at its division into upper and lower town, each with its own large square lined with beautiful emblazoned houses with arcades. The city also has a very beautiful example of civil Gothic: its town hall with crenellated arches. But the most beautiful representative of this civil gothic style is to be seen in Innsbruck. It is the Small Golden Roof, a superb oriel (closed balcony) that serves as a lodge of honor. With its roof covered with thousands of gold-plated copper shingles and its frescoes and bas-reliefs depicting Maximilian I, it is hard to miss!Renaissance and Baroque Splendors
After the splendor of the Gothic period, Maximilian I brought a new wind to Tyrol: the Renaissance, which was strongly influenced by Italian architecture. The great palaces were covered with elegant painted or embossed facades and organized around large and harmonious arcaded courtyards, while their interiors were decorated with sumptuous coffered ceilings, frescoes and magnificent marquetry work. Trento, known as the "painted city", is famous for its colorful palaces with elegant geminated windows. In Rattenberg, the houses impress with their high colored facades, decorated with stucco elements and marble frames. You will notice that behind their horizontal lintels they have roofs with several ridges perpendicular to the street. These so-called "ditch roofs" were designed to limit the risk of fire. In Innsbruck, the imperial church, whose marquetry tribune called "the choir of the princes" can be admired, houses one of the most beautiful and famous witnesses of this Tyrolean Renaissance: the mausoleum of Maximilian I, whose grandiose plans the emperor himself conceived. The white marble cenotaph, surrounded by a magnificent wrought iron gate, is surrounded by 4 allegorical bronze figures, a kneeling statue of Maximilian, 28 bronze statues (40 were planned at the beginning!) nicknamed "the Black Men" and 24 bas-reliefs. The castles became palaces, like Tratzberg Castle with its illuminated facades, its beautiful courtyards with arcades, its rooms decorated with frescoes and its ceilings with astonishing wood assemblies made without any nails! Ambras Castle in Innsbruck is another magnificent example of this Renaissance revival. Gone are the massive medieval trappings and in place are the refined decorations, such as in the Spanish Room, decorated with stucco and grotesques, a coffered ceiling, inlaid doors and elegant frescos. The fortress of Kufstein shows how military architecture adapted to the evolution of artillery: bastions and casemates are structural innovations. Then the harmonious Renaissance will give way to the abundant Baroque. Baroque is an art of staging par excellence, accompanied by a profusion of stucco, gilding and other ornaments in the most varied forms to create astonishing movements. The Karlskirche in Volders is the first large baroque church in Tyrol. See its amazing cloverleaf plan, its 6 domes and its bulbous bell towers decorated with turrets. Wilten has two masterpieces of this baroque: the abbey church with its orange plastered facade curving up to a portal flanked by two painted wooden giants and its interior populated by black altarpieces enhanced with gold and grills with elegant vegetal decorations; and the basilica whose interior decoration is adorned with pink and white, both enhanced with gold, and with scrolls and flowers in stucco. The abbey of Stams has lost its original Cistercian sobriety in favor of a decoration all in frescoes and gilding, to which two bulbous towers have also been added. The "baroquization" of medieval buildings is a very common phenomenon, as evidenced by the cathedral of St. James in Innsbruck with its concave façade framed by two towers and its monumental dome. See also the paintings in its lantern dome, whose perspective effects give an astonishing impression of height. But this baroque is not only religious, it also transforms houses and palaces. The Imperial Palace in Innsbruck is the most beautiful example. Its long façade framed by domed towers and its richly decorated rooms, including the Hall of the Giants with its bright stucco panels with a porcelain look, bear the mark of this abundant baroque... Just like the Helbling House with its stylized frames and its windows arranged in astonishing convex forebays, an ingenious way of capturing the maximum amount of light in a narrow street with very little sunlight!
From the 19th century to modernism
Cortina d'Ampezzo was the site of one of the very first luxury hotels in the Italian Tyrol. And there are many of them along the Great Dolomite Road, an engineering masterpiece built between 1895 and 1909 to connect Bolzano to Cortina. Very much in vogue at the time, historicizing eclecticism and the Belle Epoque style, drawing on the sources of the ancient, Gothic and Renaissance styles, adorn the facades of all these new tourism champions. In Merano, the city's flagship building, the Kurhaus or bathhouse, adds a new touch to all these neo styles: that of Art Nouveau, known as Liberty in Italy. It blends classical colonnades and pediments with floral decorations and elegant skylights and domes. In the early 1930s, the beautiful city of Bolzano caught the eye of the Duce, who wanted to make it an example of fascist architecture and urban planning. Instead of baroque lines, a monumentalism was preferred, advocating a return to the ancient codes with colonnades and porticoes. The Monumento alla Vittoria and the Palace del Tribunale are two representatives of this architectural fascism.
It was also in the 1930s that the Großglockner High Alps Road was built. 870,000m3 of earth and stone were moved, 115,750m3 of masonry were built, 67 bridges were built...: impressive figures for this road, which stretches over 48 km and 36 bends and is perfectly integrated into the landscape thanks to the use of traditional stone. The Tyrol then opened up to modernism under the impulse of two great local architects: Clemens Holzmeister and Lois Welzenbacher. The former became famous for his monumental style drawing on the sources of local traditions, oscillating between simplicity and expressiveness. Among his major achievements are the astonishing Passionsspielhaus in Erl, a sort of concrete comma on stilts, and the chapel in the Lienz cemetery, erected in honor of the soldiers of the Great War. The latter was responsible for buildings in the emerging international style, combining functionality and rationality, such as the white, angular tower in Hall in Tyrol or the buildings around the Innsbruck railway station. Lois Welzenbacher was the only Austrian architect to be invited to the "International Style" exhibition in New York in 1932! In the 1950s, Tyrol was transformed once again, but this time through engineering giants such as the Europe Bridge, which required the production of no less than 70,000m3 of concrete and 3,150 tons of asphalt, or all the dams and reservoirs created in the Kaprun valley.Contemporary effervescence
First of all, let's go to Innsbruck. The Kaufhaus Tyrol, a large shopping center designed by David Chipperfield, is an elegant structure with a glass and concrete façade coated with a mixture of cement and white marble. Dominique Perrault and Daniel Buren have completely redesigned the city hall with light and airy glass structures. Stoll Wagner designed the Tyrol Panorama, a long building that shines like a diamond and creates a delicate link with the Imperial Hunters' Historical Museum. A successful dialogue with the past can be found in the tourist office, which occupies the former imperial stables and whose three-aisle gallery and Renaissance vaults are in dialogue with clean, contemporary volumes. One can also appreciate the Maison de la Musique with its large bay windows and its façade animated by mobile ceramic blades. Not far from the center, it is the mark of Zaha Hadid that we discover. She is responsible for the Bergisel Springboard, an astonishing hybrid installation, part ski ramp, part restaurant and part panoramic platform, whose curved white structure is a delight to behold. Zaha Hadid also redesigned the Hungerburg cable car stations, notably the Seegrube station, whose shape and whiteness are directly inspired by the surrounding snowy mountains. In the Italian Tyrol, the architect is the author of another architectural feat: the Messner Mountain Museum in Plan de Corones, whose structure is literally nestled in the rock so as not to break the harmony of the landscape. The high mountain is a terrain that is conducive to all kinds of experimentation and daring. The platforms are spectacular, like the Stubaier Gletscher, a metal and wood structure suspended above the Stubai glacier, or the steel, glass and larch wood pavilion in the Hochgurgl area designed by Peter Schluck. The cable car lines and stations are not to be outdone. Take a look at the organic sculptures covered with curved aluminum panels at the Wildspitzbahn stations, or the steel constructions covered with a transparent membrane at the Gaislachkogelbahn. The latter were designed by the Tyrolean architect Johann Obermoser, who also designed the astonishing Ice Q Restaurant with its glass structure resembling blocks of ice. The elegant Congress Park in Igls, designed as a transparent climatic space, the Festival House in Erl, inspired by the surrounding mountains, and the incredible Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, designed by Mario Botta as a "pantheon without a facade", whose three floors are organized around a large agora overhung by a large glass dome: these are just some of the superb examples of the contemporary effervescence that is constantly transforming the Tyrol!
Vernacular riches
At very high altitudes, the buildings are almost always made of stone, but in the greener alpine pastures, an astonishing architecture unfolds: that of wooden farms and chalets. Solidly anchored on a stone base, to reinforce the insulation of the house, these rustic houses can be recognized by their sloping roofs, whose overhang protects the facade decorated with beautiful paintings and adorned with oriels and wooden galleries. The lace-like woodwork and friezes add to this unique decorative art, which is also found in the panelled interiors, where the furniture is painted in bright colors and decorated with stencilled motifs (flowers, stars, hearts). Spruce, larch, fir, ash, hazelnut ...: the most diverse species are used according to their properties to achieve a unique refinement in the work of sculpture and marquetry. The bell tower in the façade is there to give rhythm to daily life. The most beautiful village where to discover this architecture and these chalets is undoubtedly Alpbach. You can also visit many eco-museums. Among the most famous are the Tyrolean Farm Museum in Rattenberg, the Regional Museum and Ecomuseum of Ötztal and of course the Tyrolean Museum of Folk Art and Traditions in Innsbruck. In Trentino-Alto Adige, you will more frequently see large white farmhouses, made of masonry with 1 or 2 floors and with a wooden gable roof. The first floor is for the animals, thefirst floor for the living quarters and the attic for hay storage. The facade often has wooden stairs and balconies. From the second half of the 20th century, this vernacular architecture became very fashionable again, with ski resorts using and abusing the chalet model for their hotels, while resolutely modern chalets mixing the rusticity of wood with ever more original forms, while advocating simplicity and durability, were being born everywhere!
