An Austrian holiday

My wife and I have just returned from a week in the Austrian Tyrol.  Excellent hotel, beautiful scenery, what more could you ask for?  Well, a couple of museums would be nice and fortunately we were only 45 minutes from Innsbruck.  First the Zeughaus, built as an arsenal for the emperor Maximilian I at the end of the 16th century.  I had anticipated a collection of armour and weapons and that indeed was its original purpose.  However, it now houses a museum of the culture and history of the Tyrol.  That being said, one of the galleries features artefacts from the 1809 campaign between the Tyroleans and the Bavarians.  My apologies for all the reflections.

In his "Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book", Digby Smith makes no mention of lost eagles at the battles on the Berg Isel, so this standard must have come from another action.  However, the company flag is Bavarian

These are from the Tyrolean forces

The Zeughaus building itself is impressive

The Zeughaus is one of 5 Tiroler Landmuseum in Innsbruck and you can get a combined ticket for all of them for 11 euros, very good value when adult entry for one is 8 euros!  Two of particular interest to me were the Kaiserjaeger museum and the Tyrol panorama.  The panorama is a giant painting of c1000 square metres painted in 1896 which captures the action of the 3rd battle of Berg Isel. 

I like how the foreground has been constructed to be part of the painting.

Andreas Hofer surveys the battle

The Bavarians attack

The Kaiserjaeger museum is reached by an underground passage from the Panorama and is  fascinating, detailing the history of the regiment(s) from 1809 to 1918.  I was particularly taken by the details of the campaigns against Italy during WWI, with the maps of constructions and photographs of the unforgiving terrain.

As in every country across Europe the  terrible cost of the first World War is remembered in village across the Tyrol