Less Famous Places to Visit in Beautiful Austria

Article Written By: catappr

Austria is a country that attracts a great number of visitors from all corners of the world throughout the year, because it is just such a marvelous place to see! Of course, the grand majority of visitors are people who enjoy snowboarding, skiing or other winter activities. Indeed, Austria is a regular Nirvana for skiers, because of the innumerable resorts situated in the tall Austrian Alps.

Thousands of kilometers of ski runs welcome their users each year. However, since this country presents an interesting history and gave birth to such a large variety of esteemed artists, touring Austria is also a chance to see stuff like the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great Opera House in Vienna and many other well known cultural points of interest. Still, few tourists are aware about other, more discrete locations that are very interesting to visit, like the old Castle Ambras in Innsbruck and the eerie Werfen Ice Caves, very close to the same city. And it's a bit of a shame too, because there are other points of interest that only people that live there seem to appreciate, like the Schloss Hellbrunn and the Golden Roof.

You'll find the Ambras Castle above the city of Innsbruck, high up on a big mound close by. It was raised by Archduke Ferdinand II, and it was this guy's residence for almost thirty years, from 1563 to 1595. Due to this fact, the name of Ferdinand II always appears along with the name of Ambras Castle in any conversation about this building.

There are about three wonderful halls in the palace that you can't miss, and the most appealing is the great Chamber of Arts and Curiosities, a big hall full of medieval contraptions , paintings, furniture, statues and other things. The bronze animals, rock crystals, coral crucifix and the portrait of Vlad Dracula are just some of the things that will surely capture your imagination when seeing them first hand.

The Spanish Hall is quite tall and long, being the perfect setting for today's classical music concerts that are often held in Innsbruck throughout the whole year. The Armories and the Upper Castle section are also interesting to see.

The second attraction I should mention is the biggest cave complex on Earth, the Werfen Ice Caves! Almost 40 km of grottoes have joined under the mountains near Innsbruck, transforming simple grottoes into an immense labyrinth that was a gathering point for geologists for more than a hundred and fifty years. The portion that is open for visiting doesn't exceed one kilometer though, but who would choose to go 40 miles on foot anyway, right? The caves are full of fantastic looking ice structures. This doesn't resemble anything you saw until now, I assure you.

As I said, you can discover many other extraordinary things to see in Austria besides the Ambras Castle and the Werfen ice caves, you just need to look around. Here's a tip: if you travel to Austria, don't put all your trust into your tourist flyer.

Instead, why don't you ask some locals where to go and what to see? You will love it when you find out there are some great, less known locations in nearly every city you'll visit.

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Click here to learn about the Ambras Castle and the Werfen Ice Caves!

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