Wattens, Austria

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

AustriaTyrol

Overview

Wattens is a small market town in the Tyrolean Inn valley, about 20 km east of Innsbruck — best known worldwide as the headquarters of Swarovski and the location of Swarovski Kristallwelten, the company's giant crystal-themed visitor park built around the iconic Giant figure.

Swarovski Kristallwelten

Crystal-themed visitor park with Chambers of Wonder commissioned from international artists and the André Heller Giant.

Innsbruck Side-Base

Quieter twenty-minute base for the Tyrolean capital, the Nordkettenbahn and the Goldenes Dachl old town.

Inn Valley Walking and Cycling

Tuxer Alps walking routes, alpine pastures above Wattenberg and the long-distance Innradweg river cycle path.
Travel Overview

Wattens is a small market town in the Tyrolean Inn valley, about twenty kilometres east of Innsbruck. The Swarovski crystal company was founded here in 1895 and the town has been the group's headquarters ever since; the original cutting works still occupy a large complex on the southern bank of the Inn. Swarovski Kristallwelten — the visitor park opened in 1995 for the company's centenary, with Chambers of Wonder designed by André Heller and a contemporary outdoor sculpture park behind the giant grass-covered Giant figure that buries the entrance — is one of Austria's most visited paid attractions outside Vienna and the prime reason most travellers stop. The surrounding Tuxer and Karwendel ranges open onto easy day-walking, and Innsbruck and the Stubai Glacier are each thirty minutes away.

Discover Wattens

Swarovski Kristallwelten is a crystal-themed visitor park built around the Giant — an artificial grass-covered face out of whose mouth water flows into a small pool, designed by André Heller for the Swarovski centenary in 1995. Behind the Giant a sequence of Chambers of Wonder presents installations by Brian Eno, Yayoi Kusama, John Brekke, Susan Hiller and other commissioned artists; the outdoor garden adds a Crystal Cloud above the Mirror Pool, a children's tower and a shop with the largest Swarovski retail range in the world.

Diplomatic missions in Wattens

1 embassy based in this city, grouped by region.