Innsbruck city archive

Innsbruck's history from its beginnings to the present day

The historical collection of the Innsbruck City Archive is more than extensive. Here, visitors can browse through and marvel at countless exhibits. Whether it's a city foundation, economic or tourism history, princely residences, or contemporary history - the city archive has everything you need to know about Innsbruck.

Please smile! Photo Margit and Much Heiss

05.12.2024 - 18.04.2025

Over 25,000 negatives from the company archive of Foto Margit, whose portrait studio in Leopoldstraße existed until the 1970s, have been preserved in the Innsbruck City Archive/Municipal Museum. A colourful array of images, mostly in black and white, shows the work of Margarethe ‘Margit’ Oberhaidinger, née Heiss, as a chronicler of life in Innsbruck in the post-war period. More than a thousand studio pictures of city dwellers were selected for this exhibition.

Please smile! Photo Margit and Much Heiss

Margit's father, the landscape photographer Much Heiss, travelled and hiked through Tyrol in the interwar period and built up his ‘Alpine Art Publishing House’. His photos were sent out thousands of times as postcards and were mostly taken in the fresh air. The mountains, towns, villages and valleys he documented in large-format glass plates have also changed considerably over the last hundred years, and his photographs are valuable contemporary documents.

You will probably recognise one or two familiar faces in the photos from Studio Margit... Smiling back is allowed!

Accompanying programme

Saturday openings
15 March, 12 April 2025 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Active tours by the mediation team
at 11 a.m. on the Saturday openings

Curator guided tour
25 March 2025, 6.30 pm

Educational programme for school classes
Educational programme for senior citizens and the young at heart
Guided tours on request

Insight into contemporary events

What makes a visit to the archive so unique is the combination of the city archives and the city museum. A presentation will focus on the events around and after World War II.

Photo collection with around 100,000 photos

An extensive photo collection awaits visitors at this attraction in Innsbruck as well. Most of the pictures are also available digitally. The large poster collection has also been digitised and is accessible via a special database.

Regional newspapers of the 18th century

The City Archive Innsbruck offers historical insight in all areas. It is not only based on documents, minutes, or books. Sever-al hundred journals and all the important regional newspapers are available as well. Some of them date back as far as the 18th century.

Varied insights into the history of Innsbruck

The confirmation of the town charter of 1239 is the oldest municipal document in the collection of this sight in Innsbruck. The paintings of famous Tyrolean artists, medieval documents, and historical photographs provide varied information.

In a permanent exhibition, the Innsbruck City Museum reveals interesting facts about the history of the city. For this it uses the most formative holdings of the city archives.

Öffnungszeiten

City museum: Mondays to Fridays from 09:00 am to 05:00 pm

City archives: Mondays to Thursdays from 09:00 am to 05:00 pm, Fridays 09:00 am to 01:00 pm