A day at the Castle Tyrol
South Tyrol is a region with around 800 castles and if you know me a bit, I'm sure you won't be surprised when I tell you that we couldn't miss the opportunity to visit at least one of them during our stay.
Castle Tyrol (also known as Schloss Tirol in German or Castel Tirolo in Italian) is towering above the Adige valley close to Merano. It used to be the seat of the Counts of Tyrol in the past and the region of South Tyrol is named after this castle.
The distance from Naturno to Merano is around 13 km and it should take you less than 20 minutes by car. Unless you have a tractor ahead of you and too much traffic to be able to take it over..
After 40 minutes (I'm sure we would be faster if we would go by bikes) we arrived in Merano, ate pizza for lunch (you have to eat pizza when you're in Italy) and drove up the hill to the castle.
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The road around the castle is closed and the parking place nearby is around 30 minutes walk from the castle. This wouldn't be a problem if it wouldn't be 38 Degrees Celsius and no shadow on the way. But it was my birthday weekend and I wouldn't get frustrated.. NO, I wouldn't..
Who am I kidding? Of course, I was frustrated. I was walking and walking and walking and the castle was still so far away. It was too hot, I was sweating, forgot my cap in the car and was too stubborn to go back and get it.. and I blamed my poor husband for all my troubles 😊
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I relaxed a bit when we got closer to the castle and I started to look forward to it again..
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I realized that all the effort was worth the views that we got on the way..
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After the last steep climb we finally reached the castle and purchased our tickets (entrance fee is EUR 7 per person).
Our tour can start!
First of all, we planned to explore the castle itself and then we wanted to visit the South Tyrol Museum of Culture and Provincial History that is located in the tower.
The museum shows the recent political and cultural events in the region which is interesting as South Tyrol belonged to the Habsburg monarchy for more than 500 years and it was annexed to Italy in 1919. This history is still present in the daily life of people. Are you asking how? One example would be that people here speak German instead of Italian.
Let's get back to the castle...
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Castle Tyrol dates back to the 11th century and it was erected by the Counts of Vinschgau, who later took title as the Counts of Tyrol. Over the years there were many alterations to the castle, but the most important ones happened in the 19th and 20th centuries. The castle became a national monument in the 19th century.
It consists of the South Palace with its adjoining chapel, the East Palace, the Walkway, the Refectory, the Refectory Cellar, the Keep, the Kitchen Yard and the service buildings. There is also a shop with nice souvenirs from the region and a cozy café.
Inside the castle lies a treasure of archaeological finds from the 12th century.
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Let's go inside!
The chapel was built at the beginning of the 12th century and it is dedicated to St. Pankras. In the 13th century the one storey chapel was enlarged, and another storey was added to provide the rulers with a separate space.
There are original Gothic frescoes on the wall, and we spent some time exploring them. They were finished in 1330 and most of them can be associated with the Virgin Mary.
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When you enter the chapel, your eyes will immediately fall on an impressive crucifixion group. It was created at the beginning of the 14th century and recently restored in 2002.
A legend says that a piece of the cross falls off at the death of each ruling prince.
Behind the crucifixion group is the oldest surviving winged altarpiece in the Alpine area which was created towards the end of the 14th century. It was donated by brothers Leopold III and Albert III and produced in Vienna.
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The castles offers some spectacular views of its surroundings...
This covered walkway was built at the beginning of the 20th century to connect the East Palace and the Refectory which lies to the north.
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The view of the courtyard from the walkway..
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And the view from the tower..
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I don't have photos from the museum that is in the tower as the exposition is very factual and there were no interesting artefacts that I would like to share with you. I would however still recommend visiting the museum if you like to learn about historical events from this region.
The trip to Castle Tyrol was a perfect day trip and I would say that you should give it a go if you happen to be around.
If not, then I hope that you have enjoyed the tour with me.
Thank you for reading,
Cheers,
Martina
I appreciate your efforts walking uphill in the sun and taking all these beautiful scenic photos with the castle surroundings for us, plus you got yourself a nice tan on the back :) What a great location for Tyrol Castle, surrounded by all those mountains and vineyards. BTW I bet they have good wine up there, hope you had a glass for your birthday. Great trip and report Martina, did you said 800 castles? Wow I need to see at least one in this life time.
Hahaha, well, it was all worth the tan on my back ;)
They have great wines there. We didn't take any bottles with us as we started to limit drinking to minimum but we enjoyed a couple of glasses while we were there :)
YEAH! 800! Sounds crazy, doesn't it? You should definitely go there. It's a biking paradise :)
Martina, you got both a beautiful shot of the views of the mountains along with my favorite (the castles in case you didn't know)... well done! A+++++++++
The pictures are perfect and the view from the tower shows just why these castles are all built on the highground! I can imagine the old-time lookouts had to appreciate what a wonderful job they had looking at that scenery! :)
I thought that your favorite were mountains Dave.. make up your mind! :)
I think that they were built on the highground because of the protection but I like your reasoning better :)
Hope you're doing well!
the castles in the mountains Silly! and you have such good tastes that its always hard to decide what is my favorite!
and hahaha... the lookouts were "protecting" because they we looking for enemies... and the high ground is exactly for protection... but I assume since 99% of the time there were no enemies, those guys had it made!
That makes sense now! :)
Oh Martina...these past two photographic birthday posts of yours from South Tirol has brought back a flood of beautiful memories to me of my time there (two birthdays) fifty years ago... Thank you.
As you know, I was a lucky military recruit who fortunately was assigned to a NATO partnership there in Tirol, rather than Viet Nam for my first assignment with the US Army...much to my surprise.
Naturno is only about twenty to thirty clicks from the old mountain hide-a-way I mostly spent time at (coming and going for temporary assignments)
You've sparked the desire in me to dig out my old snapshots of the region to post here as well, when I get my scanner to work or buy a new one :>)
Thanks again for those wonderful views...I already went through them about three times and probably will once again.
HAPPY BORNDAY
Ciao, amica mia.
Angryman is sweet again :) I'm glad that I brought up those memories. You were indeed lucky to be assigned to such region. How long were you in army? I mean in general, not in Tyrol as I understand you had 2 years assignment there :)
You should maybe return to the region and see how it changed. It could be interesting to compare it to 50 years ago. Oh, boy, that's long time ago :)
Have a great weekend!
:>)
Yes, I was based in the Tyrol region for about two years - coming and going at times on escort and training missions.
I have often thought of returning over the years, but life takes turns that prevent us from seemingly doing what we want to do. My love for Europe was such that I considered living there after I got out of the military, but my love for a girl back home lured me back to the States...
I probably should have just gone home to pick her up and fly us both back to Europe.
Wow! The views are great. Thank you for walking 30 minutes, up hill, on your birthday and suffering from sunburn and heat exhaustion die to 38 Celsius! 100.4 Fahrenheit for us Americans and what we call a scorcher! My vote seems insufficient to compensate you for your trouble, but I will resteem it as well as a bonus.
🙏🏻 I wish you safe & happy travels.
A scorcher! New word for me :) Every day is a school day :)
I am grateful for every single small vote, words of encouragement and resteems are lovely bonuses too :)
Have a great start of the week!
Wow! I just stumbled across your blog following your comment on crimsonclads blog. Your photos are great! I see your in Palnet. You may want to post in CreativeCoinCommunity also or add the tag #ccc to your post category line. It might bring in some extra coin to help finance your travel or buy dog food 🤣😂
🙏🏻Safe Travels
Upvoted, follow and resteem.
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Thank you for your kind words and support! Well, I was thinking about using this tag but I'm not sure if my content fits in 'creative' part :) Oh, I would love some extra cash for my travel! And dog food doesn't sound bad either :)
Great photos! Castles are so photogenic. It's nice that they have kept it up and have a museum inside. There were a few like that in Spain but, where I was in the south, most of the smaller ones were little more than broken ruins.
Was there a place to get coffee up there? With that kind of scenery, it would be a great place to sit and sip a coffee.
Thank you! Castles are my favorite places because as you said they are very photogenic.
Did you live close to the sea? If so, then it was a lovely compensation for not having that many castles around :)
There was, but it was in the courtyard so no view.. but on the way to the castle are a few hotels where you can go and have some coffee. Those have views over the valley too...
I did live close to the Mediterranean and Atlantic. There were actually quite a few castles, but most were in ruins. There was even one that was turned into a hippie town that was mostly infact.
They need to relocate that coffee shop so you can enjoy the view! Happy birthday, too, by the way.
I enjoyed it with you! :) Terrific views, and how nice to view it sitting in a comfort chair in a room with a conditioner )) I saw myself there in your words!
I'd say our husbands are enduring :) But that's too bad they closed the road to castle on a high season and made people to walk under hot sun so long distance. But I am glad to hear you liked it, because - it is your birthday trip! :D
Hahaha, yes, they definitely are! But this is what husbands are for, lol :D Put all the blame on them and feel better ;) Just kidding..
I did enjoy it a lot. Thinking about it being my birthday trip helped me to survive that heat as who would like to spoil their birthday trip with bad mood? ;)
I can understand you )) As you remember, my visit to Georgia in May was also a birthday trip. Although it was my idea, but who cares, I enjoyed it so much.
Have a wonderful weekend, Martina! 🌞🎈
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I liked your post! Beautiful photos and accurate descriptions. I was in Sud Tirol years ago, I think I'll be back this year because there are fantastic places there! I will probably go first to Lake Garda and then to the area of Bolzano and Merano. Looking at your photos you made me feel even more like going there!
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It was my first time there as the road from our place is just horrible and too long.. but I loved it and I will get back! I definitely want to visit Lake Garda! I have only spent a few hours in Merano so I still have to take some time to explore it better and I for sure have to go to Bolzano. It looks like I have to spend there at least one more week, lol.
Thank you for stopping by!
Yes, they are exceptional places! There are many things to see and visit, a second visit is a must! 😃
You know I will never get tired of you sharing castles! This one is no exception. Such stunning views! Though I'm with you, I'd probably be pretty cranky myself walking in that kind of heat. Totally worth it, though. Love the shot out the window with the bird flying in the background. One of these days I'm going to get to see one of these awesome castles in person! Until then I'll keep living vicariously through you!
I prefer much lower temperatures so this was hell for me and I was happy when we finally reached the castle and could go inside as the temperature dropped there by at least 20 degrees. It was so comfortable.
I hope that you will be able to visit some castles soon! You should head to Europe.. you will love it! Just let me know when you're around so that we can meet up ;)
Thank you for stopping by Katie!
WOW! This is an amazing place! The view of the valley alone make it look worth the trip. I always wanted to see more ancient history like this on my travels. I need to add this spot to my travel list. Your post are making my travel list pretty big come to think of it, haha. Great post
Hahaha, I'm sure that you wouldn't know where to start if you would come to Europe. There are so many things to see and sooo little time to see everything you want :)
I'm glad to hear that your list is getting pretty big and I think it's the right time to start ticking it off :)
Haha I think you are right. It is becoming the biggest problem in my life. To much stuff to do with to little time. It is time to start taking care of my list.