Hofgarten

About

The Hofgarten (English: Court Garden) is a protected park located on the edge of the Altstadt (Old Town) section of Innsbruck, Austria. The park covers an area of 10 hectares (25 acres), and borders on the Hofburg, the Kongresshaus, and the Tyrolean State Theatre. The Hofgarten was originally laid out on the site of a river meadow under the direction of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria in the sixteenth century. At the time, it was one of the most elaborate gardens laid out north of the Alps. During its 600-year history, it was turned into a Renaissance garden, a French formal garden and, since 1858, an English landscape garden. Its last conversion was conceived by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, but carried out four decades later by an unknown landscape designer who deviated significantly from Sckell's original proposal. The Hofgarten is managed by the Austrian Federal Gardens (Österreichischen Bundesgärten), a subordinate department of the Ministry of the Environment (Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft).

The Hofgarten is a recreation area within the Old Town with an interesting and varied stock of mature trees, a set of ponds, a modern children...