Karmel St. Josef und St. Teresa, Discalced Carmelite convent in Innsbruck, Austria

Karmel St. Josef und St. Teresa is a Discalced Carmelite convent in Innsbruck set into a steep hillside and surrounded by large gardens. The buildings have simple white facades that follow the architectural approach of this religious order.

The imperial permit for the convent arrived on 11 October 1845, and benefactor Johann Nepomuk Kravogl bought the Memminger Schlössl in Wilten for 12,000 Gulden. The first three nuns came from Prague's Hradschin monastery in May 1846 under prioress Maria Aloisia Dichtl. A new convent was built from 1847, occupied in 1848, and its church consecrated on 20 July 1850. Bombing destroyed church and convent parts in 1943/44; rebuilding followed in the 1950s.

The convent church is dedicated to Saint Teresa of Ávila, and the nuns live as a cloistered community. The church interior, designed by Leo Zogmayer, originally had an elliptical choir with altar and ambo as movable elements; a grille separates the nuns' choir from the guests' area. The building was consecrated on 27 June 2003 by Archbishop Alois Kothgasser.

The convent stands on the slope of the Nordkette above Mühlau, at the end of a steep access road; the church is a separate building with a bell tower bearing the Carmelite coat of arms. The nuns live in strict enclosure, so only the church and garden areas are normally accessible. The interior, redesigned after the original Leo Zogmayer concept, has an elliptical choir with movable altar and ambo.

The move was not caused by environmental change: the Wilten site, once surrounded by fields, was overtaken by the growing city after Innsbruck's main station was built nearby in 1856, making it unfit for a cloistered community. The city provided a plot above Mühlau on the Nordkette slope, and the convent built there from 1999 to 2003 was consecrated on 27 June 2003 by Archbishop Alois Kothgasser.