Castello Firmiano description and photos - Italy: Bolzano (Topic)

Castello Firmiano description and photos - Italy: Bolzano. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Castello Firmiano.

Photo and description

Castello Firmiano, whose name sounds like Sigmundskron in German, is a spacious castle with a network of fortifications located in the vicinity of Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol. Today it houses one of the sections of the Messner Mountain Museum (MMM), founded by the famous Italian climber Reinhold Messner.

The first mentions of Castello Firmiano are found in 945. Then he was known as Formicaria. In 1027, Emperor Conrad II transferred the castle to the ownership of the Bishop of Trento, and in the 12th century it passed into the possession of the ministerials - representatives of the petty knighthood, who since then began to bear the name Firmian. Around 1473, the Tyrolean ruler Sigismund the Rich bought the castle, renaming it Sigmundskron and adapting it to withstand firearms. From ancient Formicaria to the present day, only a few fragments have survived, mostly located at the highest points of the area.

Due to financial difficulties, Sigismund was forced to lay the castle, as a result of which the building gradually began to decline. At the end of the 18th century, it belonged to the Counts of Volkenstein, and after them - until 1994 - to the Counts of Toggenburg. It was the last owners of Castello Firmiano who restored the partially ruined castle in 1976 and opened a restaurant in it. And in 1996, the castle became the property of the province of Bolzano.

In the spring of 2003, after long confrontations, Reinhold Messner received the castle on a long-term lease to house the exposition of the Mining Museum. During the next restoration work in 2006 on the territory of Castello Firmiano, a Neolithic grave with a female skeleton was discovered, which, according to preliminary estimates, is from 6 to 7 thousand years old.

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Topic: Castello Firmiano description and photos - Italy: Bolzano.