Cenotaph of Emperor Maximilian in Innsbruck
Facing the Kaiserliche Hofburg in Innsbruck - no, not only Vienna has one - stands a church known as the Hofkirche which Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) erected in memory of his grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519). Designed by architect Andrea Crivelli of Trento in the traditional German form of a hall church, it consists of three naves with a setback three-sided choir, round and pointed arch windows as well as a steep broken hip roof. Built in a mixture of late Gothic and Renaissance styles, the Hofkirche was finished in 1553 after four years of construction time. The most prominent feature of the church is the cenotaph of Emperor Maximilian. Already during his lifetime, the Habsburg ruler had taken a liking to monuments built in his honour and so the idea to construct a memorial for himself and the Habsburg rule of the Holy Roman Empire wasn't a far-fetched one for Emperor Maximilian. The construction of the ornate black marble tomb took 80 years to...