The place where history comes to life.

On 1st January 2017 the Franzensfeste Fortress became the tenth and most recent of South Tyrol’s State Museums. This massive structure, covering 65,000 square metres of building space, with its labyrinth of rooms, corridors, courtyards and stairways, ranks not only as one of the most interesting fortresses in the Alpine region, but also looks back on a chequered history. Work started in 1833 at the order of the Emperor Franz I and, after just five years under construction, it was completed in 1838 – a masterpiece of Austrian fortress architecture. Originally conceived as an impassable barrier, it fortunately never saw combat and was only ever used to store weapons and powder.