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Archeological finds in the area of Innsbruck show that the area was already inhabited in prehistoric times. The Romans built a civil and military settlement at the Via Claudia Augusta in AD 46/47. This settlement, called 'Veldidena', later became the village of Wilten which today is part of the municipality of Innsbruck. Around 1165–1170 the Bavarian Counts of Andechs founded a settlement north of the river Inn (today the cadastral district Hötting) and also built a bridge across the river. This place was first mentioned in 1167/1183 as 'Inspruk' (German 'Brücke' = bridge). From 1180 the Counts of Andechs (now Dukes of Andechs-Meranien) also obtained the area south of the bridge. This part of the town later developed into today's centre of the old town. Already in 1187/1204 Innsbruck obtained the freedom of the city. Innsbruck became part of Tyrol in 1263 and came into possession of the Habsburgs in 1363. From 1420 it became Ducal residence and the centre of the province. The appearance of the old town is still determined by the buildings that were erected under Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564), Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) and Archduke Leopold V (1586–1632) of Tyrol, and Empress Maria Theresia (1717–1780). During the 19th century the construction of the railway lines from Innsbruck to Munich (1856–1858), via the Brenner pass to Bozen/Bolzano in South Tyrol (now Italy) (1864–1867) and across the Arlberg to Bludenz and Bregenz in Vorarlberg (1882–1884) initiated a major period of industrial growth. Innsbruck was host of the Olympic Winter Games twice, in 1964 and in 1979.

The so-called Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) [left] is Innsbruck's premier landmark. The state-oriel was built by Niklas Türing the Elder 1497/98–1500 by order of Maximilian I for the celebration of the year 1500. The roof is made of gilded copper which was the origin of its popular name. The building had served as a second town residence before the reign of Maximilian. Since 1996 it houses the Museum Maximilianeum.

The  Maria-Theresien-Straße [right] was named after Maria Theresia (1717–1780), Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. Her husband Franz Stephan Duke of Lorraine (1708–1765) was elected Emperor (Franz I) of the Holy Roman Empire in 1745.
The Hofkirche (Court Church) [left and below] was built in 1553–1563 in Late Gothic and Early Renaissance style by Emperor Ferdinand I as a burial church for his grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. In 1508, Maximilian himself had commissioned 40 bronze statues (larger than life) of important members from the House of Habsburg. In 1519, at the time of Maximilian's death in Wels, 10 statues were completed, 18 were completed until 1550. In his last will Maximilian had decided to be buried in the chapel of his residence in Wiener Neustadt. The 28 statues (nicknamed "die Schwarzen Mannder", "the Black Men"), 34 busts of Roman Emperors, and further 23 smaller statues of saints, however, remained in Innsbruck. Ferdinand I had them set up in the Hofkirche around the splendid (but empty) tomb of Maximilian.

The leader of the Tyrolean uprising in 1809 against Bavaria and France, Andreas Hofer (1767–1810) was buried in the Hofkirche in 1823, thirteen years after being court-martialled and executed in Mantova, Italy, on Napoleon's instruction. Only after Napoleon's defeat in the "Battle of Nations" in Leipzig in 1813 and the Congress of Vienna in 1814/1815, Tyrol became part of Austria again.