Tyrol Castle

South Tyrolean Museum for Culture and Regional History – Tyrol Castle

Tips for visiting Tyrol Castle

If you wish to gain an insight of the building’s history and that of the Counts of Tyrol, we recommend that you take part in a guided tour, which takes approx. 1 hour and is available to groups by advance reservation.

In addition you can also visit the church excavation in the southern surrounds of the castle in which a fascinating slide show tells the story of the eventful history of the Christian community on Tyrol Castle hill.

The History and Importance of Tyrol Castle

Tyrol Castle is Tyrol’s most historically important castle. Its owners, the Counts of Vinschgau, who were also known as the Counts of Tyrol, represented the region that was named after them for almost a thousand years.
The castle was constructed between 1138 and 1160.
The decline of Tyrol Castle, which eventually only housed a castle attendant, chaplain and woodsman, began with the end of the 16th century. In the first half of the 17th century the entire northern side, where the royal suites were located, was removed – due to fears arising from the fragility of the moraine hill on which the castle stands. Eventually, in 1816 the city of Meran acquired the castle and subsequently gifted it to Emperor Franz I.
After the First World War the castle passed into the ownership of the Italian state and only changed hands again as a consequence of the Package Agreement in 1972. Today the regional government of the Autonomous Province has established its museum for culture and regional history there.
The gate to the palace courtyard and that at the chapel entrance are notable examples of local art in the Romanesque spirit of the 12th century. The large hall still has three original coupled round arched windows with centre pillars. The two-storey chapel can be accessed through the second, richly adorned marble doorway.

In the chapel with its round apse are a gothic altar, marble sculptures, numerous early-gothic wall paintings, Tyrol’s oldest stained glass and a powerful, carved wooded crucifixion group from the 14th century.

Opening times:
12.03.-30.11.2010
10.00 am to 5.00 pm all year round (until 6 pm throughout August)
Closed: Mondays (except Easter Monday)

Guided tours:10.15 am and 2 pm

E-Mail: info@schlosstirol.it
Telephone +39 0473 220 221 - Fax +39 0473 221 132