Ambras Castle (in German Schloss Ambras Innsbruck) located in Innsbruck, Austria, is one of the major tourist attractions in the whole of Tyrol, not only for the collections it houses and for its historical importance strongly linked to Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595), but also because it represents a unique Renaissance architectural ensemble. It is composed of the so-called Upper Castle which was used as a residence, the Lower Castle intended to house the Archduke's Armories and the Chamber of Art and Wonders (Kunst- und Wunderkammer) and the Spanish Room. The oldest museum complex in the world is located at 635 meters above sea level, in the heart of a vast park and is part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, one of the most important museums in the world. The core of this art museum are the collections of Archduke Ferdinand II, one of the most important collectors of the Habsburg dynasty.
Schloss Ambras History
Starting around 1570, Archduke Ferdinand II had the so-called Lower Castle built, which had the function of hosting his collections: an independent complex, with the structure of an irregular pentagon. At that time, it was one of the first buildings intended to be explicitly built as a museum. The term "museum" was already used in the times of Ferdinand II, as a pen drawing of the court painter Joris Hoefnagel shows.
However, there are even older collections, such as the Capitoline Museums, founded by Pope Sixtus IV in 1471, or the Vatican Museums, presented starting from 1506 by Pope Julius II - for which, however, at least initially, their own buildings were not erected. The first museum building north of the Alps is the Kunstkammer in Vienna's Hofburg, built by the father of Ferdinand II, the emperor Ferdinand I, between 1558 and 1563; of it, however, only the foundations remain. Although the Ambras museum was not intended for the public but for princely representation, Ferdinand II nevertheless organized paid visits to show all his collections.
The Lower Castle is the only Renaissance museum building where part of Ferdinand II's collections have been preserved and are still exhibited in their place of origin: it is for this reason that the Ambras Innsbruck Castle is defined as the oldest museum in the world and the Lower Castle has become a "showpiece" in all respects.
The idea of museum of Archduke Ferdinand II was completely new: his goal was to collect armor that had actually been worn by famous people of his time. Ferdinand presented these armors in the so-called Hero Armory (Heldenrüstkammer). Hence also the so-called Armamentarium Heroicum, a magnificent book that shows on one side a representation of the respective "hero", and on the other his biography. He also created a huge collection of portraits in a wide variety of formats, ranging from miniature to real size. With his new idea of Armory of Heroes, Ferdinand II can be considered the founder of the systematic collection system.
Ambras Castle in a print by Matthäus Merian
Even his Chamber of Art and Wonders (Kunst- und Wunderkammer) - a name that dates back to Ferdinand II's Chamber of Art - seems to have been organized systematically. It represents an unrivaled historical monument, as it is the only Renaissance art room to be still preserved in the original museum complex.