Emperor’s Hall

Society in the Middle Ages. The ruling princes of Tyrol and the four social groupings of the time are treated here in four thematic displays: clergy and piety, nobility and knighthood, urban and rural population, free citizens and peasants. You will find historical background information here about social mobility, questions about concepts of the hereafter and piety, marginalised social groups and economic crises such as might have been caused by natural catastrophes. Visitors will experience the Middle Ages through artefacts, sources, and eye-witness testimonies.

Helmet from the Seusenhofer workshop and Margarete’s bridal cup. The closed form with its folding visor is typical of a helmet for jousting at the beginning of the 16th century. Its elegance and the fine etching show which workshop it came from: Konrad Seusenhofer was court armourer to Emperor Maximilian I in Innsbruck. The facsimile of the bridal cup of Countess Margarete partially makes up for the loss of the original cup dating from the 14th century, which was on display here in Castle Tyrol until the early 19th century. It is now kept in Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck.