Trauttmansdorff Castle

Trauttmansdorff Castle is located on the eastern edge of the city of Meran in the Burggrafenamt (South Tyrol) and is home to the Touriseum, the South Tyrolean state museum for tourism. The castle is located in the middle of the botanical gardens of the city of Meran, the "Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle", which were opened in 2001. The castle became famous, among other things, through the spa stay of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (today, a signposted Sissi path leads from the Merano spa promenade to the botanical garden). The area has an area of 12 hectaresand a trail network of 7 kilometers; the height difference is 100 meters. The state of South Tyrol is the owner and the South Tyrolean State Museums are the operators.

Story

Around 1300, the small Neuberg Castle, which was mentioned in a document in 1327, was built on the site of today's castle . The vestibule of the castle, painted around 1900, bears witness to the Austrian countries on the ceiling along the walls, as well as the coats of arms of the owning noble houses of the past. After that, the castle was owned by Angerheim from 1307 to 1354, according to other information only until 1351, this was followed by the von Suppan family with Jakob Suppan von Taransberg until 1399, the Feigenstein by the brothers Hans and Ulrich, who were also the first chapel built, from 1400 to 1488, which the Zwingenstein followed until 1537, together with the Rästler family, who left again in 1514 and bequeathed their share to the Santner, which was partially owned until 1537. The noble family Trauttmansdorff bought the castle in 1543. The buyer's son, Franz, had the castle expanded on a large scale. After this line of the Trauttmansdorffer family had died out in 1678, the possession came no later than 1697 to the Noble von Stachelburg, who are said to have owned it until 1729. Later, those of Mamming and Mohr came into joint fiefdom. In the 18th century the castle fell into disrepair. In 1777 a tower even collapsed, destroying the castle chapel. In 1805, under Bavarian rule, the property was allodialized and sold to farmers.

In 1846, Joseph von Trauttmansdorff (1788–1870), Count of Styria, moved to the Meraner Land and in 1847 bought the already dilapidated castle that had been abandoned by his relatives 150 years earlier. Joseph von Trauttmansdorff also expanded the castle and introduced many neo-Gothic elements. The castle, which has since been called Trauttmansdorff Castle, became the model for many neo-Gothic castles in South Tyrol. Reichsritter Moritz von Leon, presumably an illegitimate son of Joseph, inherited the castle in 1867 and owned it until 1893.

In 1870, Empress Elisabeth of Austria chose the castle for her spa stay in Meran. She occupied the top floor of the castle together with her two daughters Gisela and Marie Valerie. Just a few weeks after her arrival, Austrian newspapers reported on Marie Valerie's recovery, which made Meran famous as a spa town. In 1889 Elisabeth visited the castle again.

Moritz von Leon, the Empress's host, eventually had to sell all his possessions, including Trauttmansdorff Castle. Successors were the Gyulay from 1892/1893 to 1896. After bankruptcy, the property went to Friedrich von Deuster from Kitzingen. He added floors to the castle, laid out orchards and gardens and gave the castle a new shine. The heyday of the castle ended with the start of the First World War, since South Tyrol was right on the front line.

After World War I the owner was expropriated by the fascist regime, the castle fell to the Opera Nazionale per i Combattenti, a relief fund for Italian soldiers , and has since been called Castel di Nova. During the Second World War, the castle was used by the Wehrmacht.

After the end of the war the castle was empty and the Opera Nazionale per i Combattenti was looking for a buyer. When it was dissolved in 1977 and the castle had still not been sold, it fell to the South Tyrolean state administration, which finally found a use for it in 1990: the South Tyrolean state museum for tourism, the Touriseum, was opened inside and the botanical garden was built around it created. Four zones were created on the twelve hectare area, which flow into each other: forest gardens, sun gardens, water and terraced gardens and the landscapes of South Tyrol. A special attraction is the Australian Wollemia (Wollemia nobilis), a specimen of a species of conifer that was only discovered in 1994 and is extremely rare in nature. In 2006, the Gardens of Trauttmannsdorff Castle were the first botanical gardens in Italy to exhibit this plant species.

The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle were named the most beautiful garden in Italy in 2005.

literature

Published by the South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and Regional History Castle Tyrol: Trauttmansdorff, History(s) of a Castle, Meran, 2001

Bernhard Mazegger: Chronicle of Mais, its noble residences, castles and churches , Verlag F. Pleticha, Obermais-Meran 1905, p. 243 f. (online)

Josef Rohrer: Trauttmansdorff: Empress Elisabeth's winter residence castles. Volume 15). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7954-3199-0 .

Oswald Trapp : Tyrolean castle book. II. Volume: Burggrafenamt . Verlagsanstalt Athesia, Bolzano 1980, pp. 181-187.

web links

Commons : Trauttmansdorff Castle – Collection of images, videos and audio files

Official website of the museum

Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Provincial Monuments Office

The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle. : Johann Wellenzohn