History

• History (17^th to early 19^th century), early surgical schools
  The first chair of surgery was established in Innsbruck in 1730 and taken over by Hieronymus Bacchetoni. Bacchetoni came from a family of surgeons in northern Italy. In addition to the school of surgery, the French field surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) and the founder of German-language scientific surgery Lorenz Heister (1683–1758) were also significant figures. For a long time, the number of surgeons working as craftsmen in the old Tyrol far exceeded that of trained doctors.
  
• Surgical schools and surgeon training at universities, with particular reference to Innsbruck (late 18^th to 19^th century)
  From 1782 to 1869, apart from brief periods of reestablishment, the Innsbruck Medical School existed only as a type of lyceum. In 1824, a separate surgical department was established at the Innsbruck City Hospital. Until the end of the 19^th century, wound doctors and academically trained family doctors worked alongside surgeons and early specialists.
  
• The founding period of Innsbruck surgery at the end of the 19^th century.
  The Innsbruck Medical Faculty was re-established in 1869. One of the first appointments was that of surgeon Karl Ritter von Heine from Heidelberg to Innsbruck. The other professors came mainly from the schools in Vienna or Prague. Theodor Billroth (1829–1894) and Anton von Eiselsberg (1860–1939), who was influential in Innsbruck well into the 20^th century, were pioneers in the field of surgery. At this time, both the theoretical institutes and the clinics – the latter in pavilion style – were built. The then new Surgical Clinic was opened in 1888.

• Old Surgery Building (Pavilion) – Surgical Clinic in 1954
  The building was constructed as part of the construction of the “New City Hospital” between 1885 and 1887, and opened in 1888. The new Innsbruck hospital complex was built in the pavilion style, which was considered “modern” for hospital construction at the time.
  
  The surgical clinic pavilion comprised: a basement, a raised ground floor, and a first floor with a northern extension for teaching purposes, as well as a ward block on the east and west sides of the clinic pavilion. Later (in 1915), a small new building was constructed for the orthopedic department, which was expanded in 1950. In 1948, Innsbruck Hospital became the property of the province of Tyrol and has since been known as the “Landeskrankenhaus – Universitätskliniken Innsbruck” (Tyrol Provincial Hospital – Innsbruck University Clinics). The surgical clinic building survived both world wars and was demolished in 1971 following the completion of the new surgical clinic building on the current site (1961–1968) in connection with the construction of the women’s and head clinic. (K.H. Velano).