Castelli Del Tirolo: Castel Tirolo (Schloss Tirol) 🇮🇹 Italia

The vast complex of Castel Tirolo occupies a very particular place among the many castles of the Tyrolean territory. In fact, to it and to the family of the counts who resided there, the name of the County of Tirolo is due, which lasted until 1918 and whose name still persists today in the Tyrolean land in the north and in the south of Tirolo, south of the Alpine Spartiacque. The castle rises on a morainic hill which is located northwest of Merano. Most of the current complex was erected in 1138-39 by the Counts of Tirolo, who were appointed for the first time in 1141. In this construction, however, a previous walled courtyard was included, which dates back to the last quarter of the 11th century. The castle was the residence of the Counts of Tirolo and subsequently of the Counts of Gorizia-Tirolo, their heirs, until 1363, when the Counts and the castle moved to Augsburg. Following the transfer of the headquarters of the Counts from Merano to Innsbruck, wanted around 1420 by the new lords, the castle lost its importance. After centuries of slow decline, today it is the renovated seat of the Historical and Cultural Museum of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, inaugurated in 2003. The buildings, which in the inner courtyard adjoin the western curtain of the walls, now host the residence of the custodian, several rooms for temporary exhibitions and the point of restoration. From the ancient kitchen court you can access the small door that opens into the ancient wall of the mast. A Romanesque gate houses in the room on the raised floor of the Muschhaus, the Refectory. From the first floor, it is also possible to reach, through a round walkway made at the end of the 18th century, the West Palace. Also from the courtyard it is possible to enter the South Palace with the chapel, the most interesting part of the entire castle. Through an atrium covered you can access from the courtyard to the room on the first floor, boasting a marble portal richly sculpted. In the tympanum is represented a blessed angel, while along the arch and on the stilts there are figures of animals and a human couple. The room and the bifurcation of 1138-39 were strongly renovated in the late 1800s, while the marble portal of the chapel located on the east side is original and presents even richer and even better preserved than that of the room. The deposition of Christ in the tympanum and the allegorical figures on the sides of the stilts are considered masterpieces of Romanesque sculpture in Tyrol. The chapel, composed of a hall with semicircular apses, is dedicated to St. Pancrazio. After 1285 both the room and the chapel were raised by one floor. The mural paintings on both floors, made around 1330, are still linked to the tradition of the first Gothic linear, but you can already feel the novelties of the Gothic painting. At the same time the wooden group of the crucifixion was restored in the 18th century. The south palace, with its portals, is one of the most important expressions of Romanesque architecture and sculpture in the region.