This late Gothic building in the middle of the old town (Herzog-Friedrich-Straße) is considered the city’s landmark. The roof of the bay window was covered with 2,657 fire-gilded copper shingles. To be honest, we find this attraction a bit unexciting. But maybe it is also because it rains during our stay and the city is wrapped in gray as a result.
The building was built in 1420 as the residence (“Neuhof”) of the Tyrolean sovereigns. On the occasion of the turn of the century (1500), Niklas Türing the Elder added the magnificent bay on behalf of the German king and later emperor Maximilian I in 1497 / 98–1500.
Jakob Hutter, preacher of the Anabaptists, was burned alive in public in front of the Golden Roof on February 25, 1536 (during the reign of Archduke Ferdinand, a grandson of Maximilian I).
In 1996, the Maximilianeum Museum was established in the building, which was reopened as the Golden Roof Museum in 2007 after extensive expansion and renovation work.