The Gold Roof House is located in the historic centre of the Tyrolean town of Innsbruck. This five-storey old building is famous for its balcony covered with a gilded roof, which gave the building its name. Now this colourful building is a kind of symbol of the city.
The house itself was erected in the early 15th century, and this unusual but exquisite decoration of its main facade was timed to coincide with the wedding of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I with Bianca Sforza in 1494. This roof is found to be covered with exactly 2,738 gilded copper tiles.
The portal of this building is not only decorated with a balcony with a golden canopy. Its entire central part protrudes slightly forward like a bay window. The balcony and the roof correspond to about the third floor of the building. On the lower levels there is another balcony with a graceful balustrade. The whole facade is skilfully painted and decorated with various reliefs, wooden panels and miniature statuettes. All of them either narrate the life and deeds of Maximilian I or depict the emperor himself and members of his family. Although the building was erected on the occasion of Maximilian's marriage to Bianca Sforza, the façade also features a portrait of his first wife, Maria of Burgundy, who died tragically in 1482. After her death, the emperor never recovered, and the second marriage was solely because of Bianca Sforza's large dowry.
The upper balcony, from where, according to the chronicles, the newlyweds greeted the cheering crowd, is also decorated with balustrades, mouldings and ancient frescoes. Interestingly, one wooden relief depicts the so-called "Moorish" dance, which came from Andalusia and was particularly popular at the time. However, it should be noted that all the reliefs on the façade of this building are exact copies of the original ones created at the end of the 15th century. However, the authentic decorations have been preserved and are now kept in the Tyrolean State Museum, known as the Ferdinandeum, also in Innsbruck.
