The Castello Principesco, the Princely Castle, stands in the historic centre of Merano, at the foot of Monte Benedetto. Some cellars had been begun around the middle of the fifteenth century, but the castle was built from 1470 at the wish of Duke Sigismund of Austria, known as «the Rich in Coin», as the seat of the Kelleramt, the county's economic administration, and as a private residence. In 1516 Emperor Maximilian I stayed there. Then, between one change of owner and another, it slowly fell into ruin, and in the seventeenth century it appears that only the chapel was used. During the Napoleonic wars the Bavarian government gave it as compensation to the princes of Thurn und Taxis, who made it an administrative seat. In 1815 it was bought by the town council.
What to see
The courtyard is frescoed with naturalistic motifs, plants and animals twining around human figures. In the chapel are a fifteenth-century statue of St George with the dragon and several frescoes; in the prince's room a fifteenth-century majolica stove, probably the oldest in existence. Spread through the rooms is a collection of old musical instruments, weapons and kitchen utensils.
Two large rooms, originally stores, hold numerous paintings that came partly from Merano's civic museum: among them the portraits of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, the portraits of the Strellin sisters by Franz Anton Zeiler and a group of portraits by Simon Ybertrachter, dated between 1726 and 1762.
Visiting
The castle is a small museum, with about twenty thousand visitors a year, and the two large rooms are also used for civil weddings. Opening times and tickets should be checked on the website of the town of Merano.
Our editors' tip
The castle still exists thanks to a petition. The council wanted to pull it down to make room for a school: the citizens' protests, organised by the art historian David von Schönherr, saved it. From 1878 to 1880 it was restored by the architect Friedrich von Schmidt, who gave it its late Gothic appearance and furnished it with furniture, chests, weapons and paintings of the period of its construction; in 1880 it reopened to the public.
