Runkelstein Castle

In 1237 Alderich, Prince-Bishop of Trent, gave the brothers Friedrich and Beral, Lords of Wangen, permission to build a castle on the rocky spur then called Runchenstayn, near Bolzano. The castle came under attack within decades: after defeating Heinrich, Prince-Bishop of Trent, Meinhard II of Tyrol besieged and badly damaged it — dated 1274 by one account, 1277 by another — and it fell to him. Meinhard entrusted it to Gottschalk Knoger of Bozen, a protégé who had begun as a servant and rose to become district judge of Egna.

In 1385 the wealthy Bozen merchant brothers Niklaus and Franz Vintler bought the castle, an unusual residence in that era for men of their rank. Niklaus served as counsellor and financier to Leopold III, Duke of Austria and Count of Tyrol, and the brothers used their wealth to rebuild Runkelstein extensively, adding a new defensive wall, a moat, a cistern and further rooms. Frescoing began in 1388, by an unknown master, covering the Summer House and the Western and Eastern Palaces with scenes from courtly romance — King Arthur and his knights, Tristan and Isolde, Dietrich von Bern, and episodes from Der Pleier's romance Garel.

War broke out in 1407 between Frederick IV of Austria, Count of Tyrol, known as 'with the empty pocket', and the wealthy Tyrolean nobility over money, and the Vintlers were drawn into the fighting; Runkelstein itself was besieged. Niklaus, who had allied with the nobles' Hawk League, lost his entire fortune. His brother Franz, who had sided with the duke, kept the castle until Archduke Sigismund, known as 'rich with coins', acquired it.

The Habsburgs held Runkelstein until 1530. Emperor Maximilian I had the castle renovated, furnished an apartment there, ordered the frescoes restored and had his coat of arms prominently displayed. Around 1500 he granted Runkelstein to his vassal Georg von Frundsberg, later famed as the 'Father of the Landsknechte', who left its keeping to a resident custodian. In 1520 the powder magazine on the ground floor of the tower exploded, badly damaging the outer wall, entrance, tower and Eastern Palace, and killing the custodian. The castle stood neglected until King Ferdinand I granted it in 1530 to Sigmund von Brandis, Knight Commander of Bozen; rebuilding was finished by 1531.

The Prince-Bishops of Trent later regained Runkelstein, and Bernhard von Cles gave it as a fief to the Counts of Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn. Fire destroyed the eastern palace in 1672, and it was never rebuilt. In 1759 the last Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn lord surrendered the fief back to the Trentine bishops, by which time the castle was in grave decay.

German writer Johann Joseph von Görres was the first of the Romantic-era visitors to rediscover the ruin in the early 19th century, followed by artists in the service of King Ludwig I of Bavaria; Ludwig himself stayed at Runkelstein in 1833, the first name in a guestbook still preserved today, and the castle became something of a symbol for the Romantic movement even as its fabric kept crumbling.

In 1868 the northern wall of the Summer House collapsed during construction of the new road to Sarentino. The castle's fortunes turned in 1880, when Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria-Tuscany bought it and, in 1882, presented it to Emperor Franz Josef. The emperor commissioned Friedrich von Schmidt to restore the building, work carried out between 1884 and 1888, and in 1893 donated the restored castle to the city of Bozen.

Runkelstein has remained the property of the city of Bolzano since that 1893 donation. Its most recent restoration, including careful conservation of the frescoes, ran from the mid-1990s to January 2000. The castle is listed as a cultural heritage monument in South Tyrol and as Italian national heritage, and is open to visitors today, though a steep ramp makes it inaccessible by wheelchair.