Hungerburgbahn: The Zaha Hadid Funicular to Hungerburg

A funicular that looks like nothing else in the Alps

Most cities with a mountain behind them run a simple cable car up it. Innsbruck runs something stranger: a funicular whose four stations look like they were poured rather than built, with curved glass canopies that seem to rise out of the ground and the surrounding Inn river landscape. That is the Hungerburgbahn, designed by the architect Zaha Hadid and opened in 2007, and it is the first of three linked lifts that carry visitors from the middle of Innsbruck up toward the Nordkette ridge.

This page is only about that first stage, the funicular itself, its stations, and the ride to Hungerburg at roughly 860 meters. The two cable cars that continue further up the mountain, the Seegrubenbahn and the Hafelekarbahn, are covered separately in the guide to the full climb to Hafelekar, and the Christmas market that sets up at Hungerburg in December has its own dedicated page too. What belongs here is the architecture, the history of the line, the practical route from the old town, and the one mix-up that trips up almost every visitor who reads about Hadid’s work in Innsbruck before they arrive.

The mix-up to avoid: two Zaha Hadid buildings, not one

Zaha Hadid has exactly two structures in Innsbruck, and they are frequently confused because both get mentioned in the same breath as “the Zaha Hadid building in Innsbruck.” One is the Bergisel ski jump tower, opened in 2002, standing on the hill south of the city where the Four Hills Tournament stops every January. The other is the Hungerburgbahn stations, opened five years later in 2007, on the north side of the city, serving an entirely different purpose: moving passengers up to the Nordkette rather than hosting ski jumpers.

They share a designer and a decade, and both use the same sculpted, flowing concrete-and-glass language, but they are unrelated buildings in unrelated parts of town, built for unrelated reasons. If a description of “the Hadid building” doesn’t mention rail cars or a funicular, it is almost certainly talking about Bergisel instead.

Why the stations look the way they do

The brief for the Hungerburgbahn project was not simply to replace an aging line with a modern one. Hadid’s design team took cues from the natural terrain around the route: the shapes of glacial ice, the flow of water, the folds of rock. The result is a series of station shells with no straight edges, made of white concrete and curved glass panels that catch light differently through the day and glow from within after dark. Each of the four stations, despite sharing the same design language, is a distinct shape suited to its own site rather than a repeated module, which is part of why photographers spend as much time on the platforms as on the ride itself.

The engineering underneath the architecture matters too. The 2007 rebuild did not just style over an old funicular; it re-routed sections of track, added a tunnel section, and modernized the cars and mechanism, extending capacity and cutting wait times compared with the older line it replaced. The visible result — those shell-like stations — sits on top of a genuinely rebuilt piece of transport infrastructure, which is part of why the line is treated as a landmark rather than just a lift.

The four stations, one by one

The funicular runs in a single continuous line with four stops, each with its own character and its own reason to pause.

Congress, the valley station, sits at the edge of the Hofgarten park near the Congress Innsbruck building, a short and flat walk from the Goldenes Dachl and the rest of the old town. This is where almost every visitor begins, and its low, wide glass canopy is designed to read as an extension of the park rather than a break from it.

Löwenhaus comes next, a smaller stop close to a historic building of the same name and to the edge of the zoo grounds; relatively few riders get off here, and it functions mostly as a technical stop on the line.

Alpenzoo is the station most visitors actually use partway up, since it sits right by the entrance to the Alpenzoo, Europe’s highest-altitude zoo and the only one in the Alps limited to native Alpine species — ibex, chamois, golden eagles, lynx, and no imported or exotic animals at all. Riders heading only to the zoo can buy a combined ticket and skip the trip further uphill entirely.

Hungerburg, the top station of this line, opens onto a plateau with sweeping views back down over the city and the valley. It is also where passengers transfer onto the Seegrubenbahn if they are continuing higher, though that leg belongs to a separate guide.

Riding it: what to expect

The full run from Congress to Hungerburg covers a little under two kilometers and climbs roughly 280 meters, and the ride itself takes only a few minutes from the valley floor to the top station — this is a funicular built for frequent, fast turnover, not a scenic crawl. Cabins run at short, regular intervals rather than a fixed timetable, so waits are usually brief outside of the busiest midday hours in peak season. The cars themselves are unremarkable compared with the stations; the architecture is entirely at the platforms, not in the rolling stock.

Because the line gains altitude quickly, the view changes fast. Leaving Congress, the ride is framed by the trees of the Hofgarten and glimpses of the old town rooftops. By the time the car reaches Alpenzoo, the city has dropped away enough to see the full sweep of the Inn valley and the peaks of the Patscherkofel and Serles across the way. At Hungerburg, the view opens out completely, with the Bergisel ski jump visible in the distance on the opposite side of the city — a useful moment to remember that its tower, however similar in style, is not the building underfoot.

Getting to the valley station

The Congress station is walkable from most of the old town in ten to fifteen minutes, and it’s an easy add-on to a morning spent around Maria-Theresien-Straße or the Hofburg. Visitors staying further out, or arriving straight from the train station, can reach Congress by IVB city bus or tram in a few minutes; local transport timetables list the closest stop clearly, and the Innsbruck Card, when purchased, folds public transport and several cable cars, including this one, into a single pass, which is explained in more depth in the separate guide to what the card actually covers.

There is no dedicated car park at Congress aimed at funicular riders specifically; visitors driving in generally use the same central parking garages they’d use for the old town, then walk the short distance to the station.

Tickets: funicular alone, or combined further up

The Hungerburgbahn can be booked as a standalone round trip, as part of a combined ticket that continues onward to the Nordkette’s higher stations, or bundled with Alpenzoo entry for visitors planning to combine both stops in one outing.

Ticket type	Covers	Best for
Funicular round trip only	Congress to Hungerburg and back	Visitors who mainly want the architecture, the view from Hungerburg, and a short outing
Combined cable car ticket	The full climb from Congress through to the top of the Nordkette	Visitors continuing on to hike or take in the high-altitude views, covered in the separate Nordkette guide
Zoo combination ticket	Funicular plus Alpenzoo entry	Families and wildlife visitors stopping at the Alpenzoo station on the way up

a round-trip funicular ticket from central Innsbruck to Hungerburg is the simplest way to book the ride described on this page without committing to the cable cars further up the mountain. Visitors who already know they want to reach the very top of the Nordkette in the same outing can instead book a combined roundtrip ticket covering the full climb from the city to the top of the Nordkette, which folds this funicular into the first leg of a longer journey detailed in the dedicated cable car guide.

For a stop at the zoo along the way, a combined ticket covering both the Alpenzoo and the ride up to Hungerburg avoids buying two separate passes. A close variant, the Alpenzoo and Top of Innsbruck combination ticket, extends that same idea all the way to the summit stations for visitors planning a full day out.

Best time to ride

Morning departures tend to be quieter, before day-trip groups and the midday rush from the old town build up at Congress. Photographers chasing clean shots of the station shells without crowds in frame generally do best in the first couple of hours after opening. The stations are lit at night, and an after-dark ride up to Hungerburg for the city view, then back down, is a low-effort way to see both the architecture and the skyline lit up, though the details of the mountain view are obviously lost once the sun is down.

Weather matters less here than it does for the higher stations further up the mountain, since Hungerburg itself sits at a modest 860 meters or so and rarely closes for wind or snow the way the exposed summit lift can. That makes the Hungerburgbahn one of the more weather-reliable outings on this side of the city, useful to keep in mind on a day when cloud is sitting on the Nordkette’s higher slopes and the summit views are not going to deliver.

Making it part of a longer visit

Because the ride is short and the valley station sits so close to the old town, the Hungerburgbahn slots easily into a half-day that also covers the Alpenzoo, a walk through the Hofgarten, and a look at the Bergisel tower from a distance to compare Hadid’s two Innsbruck projects side by side.

Visitors with more time, or an interest in hiking once they reach altitude, typically continue past Hungerburg onto the two higher lifts, a route covered step by step in the separate guide to the full Nordkette cable car journey and in the hiking-focused guide to Hafelekar and Seegrube. Families sometimes prefer to treat Hungerburg as the turnaround point for the day, using the funicular round trip and the zoo as a self-contained outing without pushing on to the higher, colder stations.

For anyone who wants the view from altitude but not the crowds of the funicular, a guided walking option exists too: the easy guided hike around the Nordkette uses the same lift infrastructure as a starting point before heading out on foot, giving a different pace and perspective on the same mountain the Hungerburgbahn opens up.

Hungerburgbahn versus the Innsbruck Card

Visitors deciding whether the Innsbruck Card is worth buying should weigh how many lifts they’ll actually use. The Hungerburgbahn is normally one of several cable cars folded into the card alongside museum entry and public transport, so a visitor planning to ride it once, alongside a museum visit or two, may find the card pays for itself; someone planning only the funicular and nothing else will usually do better buying that single ticket directly. The full breakdown of what the card includes and when it makes financial sense is covered in its own guide rather than repeated here.

Frequently asked questions about the Hungerburgbahn

Who designed the Hungerburgbahn stations, and when did they open?

The architect Zaha Hadid designed the four stations of the modern Hungerburgbahn, which opened in 2007. The line itself is older, but Hadid’s project replaced the previous stations and realigned parts of the route.

Is the Hungerburgbahn the same as the Nordkette cable car?

No. The Hungerburgbahn is the first of three linked lifts that climb from Innsbruck toward the Nordkette. It ends at Hungerburg, around 860 meters. The Seegrubenbahn and Hafelekarbahn continue higher, up to about 2,256 meters, but they are separate cable cars covered in their own guide.

Did Zaha Hadid also design the Bergisel ski jump tower?

Yes, but it is a different building. Zaha Hadid designed both the Bergisel ski jump tower, opened in 2002, and the Hungerburgbahn stations, opened in 2007. They sit on opposite sides of the city and serve completely different purposes.

Where does the Hungerburgbahn start in the city?

The valley station, called Congress, sits near the Hofgarten and the Congress Innsbruck building, within walking distance of the old town. From there the line runs through the Löwenhaus and Alpenzoo stations before reaching Hungerburg.

How long does the ride to Hungerburg take?

The funicular ride from Congress to Hungerburg takes only a few minutes end to end, since the line covers a little under two kilometers while climbing roughly 280 meters. Waiting time for the next departure is usually short, since cabins run frequently.

Can I stop at the Alpenzoo station on the way up?

Yes. The Alpenzoo station sits directly below the zoo entrance, so it is the natural stop for visitors heading there rather than continuing to Hungerburg. Combined tickets covering both the funicular and the zoo are available.

What is there to do at Hungerburg itself?

Hungerburg is a plateau with wide views back over Innsbruck and the Inn valley, plus a terrace, restaurants, and the connecting stations for the Seegrubenbahn and Hafelekarbahn onward. It also hosts one of the city’s Christmas markets in December, which has its own guide.

Is the Hungerburgbahn included in the Innsbruck Card?

The Innsbruck Card includes a number of cable cars and public transport in the city, and the Hungerburgbahn is typically among them. Whether the card is worth buying depends on how many lifts and museums are planned for the visit.