Castello del Buonconsiglio

With its mix of military fortress and noble palace, the castle dominates the city from a small hill, and it invokes the splendour of Trento's prince bishops, who made it their home in 1255. Once the Adige flowed under its walls and the castle, built in the 13th century as an imperial fortress, protected a strategic point between north and south. The old medieval fortress Castelvecchio is the original centre, and then over the course of time the prince bishops incorporated and built other parts such as Torre dell'Aquila and Magno Palazzo, one of the most lavish Renaissance residences in Italy, allowing great artists to paint and decorate it. In Torre dell'Aquila, for example there is the cycle of “Months” frescoes, splendid exemplar of late Gothic. To visitors' delight, among its many pearls, the gardens, a frescoed Renaissance portico and a Venetian Gothic loggia which looks over the city. On the first floor of Castelvecchio is the archaeological section, three rooms that illustrate prehistoric, Roman and early Middle Ages times. Valuable paintings, small bronzes and wooden sculptures are displayed in the Renaissance rooms.
After the fall of the Principality in 1803, the castle was transformed into a military base. After renovations it was opened to the public in 1924 as National Museum and starting from 1973 it hosts the art collection of the autonomous province of Trento. There you can see a large painting depicting a general congregation of the Council in Santa Maria Maggiore. During the Council cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo offered many sumptuous banquets and accommodation to numerous Council Fathers.

Buonconsiglio Castle and Cesare Battisti

In August 1914, the machine of great history is set in motion: one month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Austria declares war on Serbia. The European population experiences for the first time mass transfers, refugee camps and trenches. In the noise of the war, the voice of Cesare Battisti also has its part: a new and irreversible phase begins for him and his family. On 18^th August 1914, Battisti leaves his family in Trento and arrives in Milano by Train; he begins there an intense activity of propaganda in favour of the intervention of the Kingdom of Italy in the war against Austria. On 29^th May 1915, Battisti decides to enlist as volunteer in the Alpine troops. At that time, there are about 700 volunteers from Trentino who intend to fight against Austria wearing the Italian uniform. Compared to them, Battisti is almost old: in 1915 he is forty, the others are mostly very young, a third of them are under 18 years old. Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi, who is from Rovereto, are arrested by Austrians on Monte Corno, not far from Rovereto, on 10^th July 1916. They are recognised as imperial subjects, led to Trento, processed, sentenced to death, and executed on 12^th July 1916 in the pit of the Buonconsiglio Castle, where on 19^th May was shot Damiano Chiesa.

Castelvecchio

The oldest part of Buonconsiglio Castle, was built in the mid 13th century around an older cylindrical tower inaccurately called 'Augustus Tower'. From 1255 to 1796, Castelvecchio was the residence of the prince-bishop who was in charge at the time as well as the venue for the meetings of the so-called 'consiglio aulico' (hence the name 'Buonconsiglio'). This 'court council' was the governing body of the prince-bishopric. Castelvecchio owes its major extensions and embellishments – i.e. its oriels, its large multi-arched window in Venetian Gothic style, its crenellated tympanum, and its large inner courtyard encircled by loggias – to Bishop Johannes IV Hinderbach (1465–1486).

Magno Palazzo

This edifice backing on a section of the ancient town wall used to be the residence of Bishop Bernardo Clesio (1485–1539), who had it built adjacent to the Castelvecchio between 1528 and 1536 (the year of its official inauguration). The wonderful fresco cycles that decorate large sections of the rooms were painted by Girolamo Romanino, Dosso Dossi and his son Battista, and Marcello Fogolino. Italian (mainly Venetian and Lombard) workers and colleagues from farther north took turns in managing the site and in creating the decorations of what is regarded as one of Northern Italy's most opulent princely residences. During the Council of Trent, cardinals Cristoforo and Ludovico Madruzzo had high-ranking prelates staying in the Magno Palazzo and used to host celebrations and banquets inside the castle as well as in its gardens.

Torre dell'Aquila

This tower was built above a gate of the same name in the town wall that was once used to control access to and from the Valsugana. The first written record of the tower is in a document dating from 1290. Its current 3-storey structure is the result of works commissioned by Prince-Bishop George of Liechtenstein towards the end of the 14th century. After his election in 1390, the prelate took possession of the tower (which belonged to the town), had it connected to Buonconsiglio Castle by a covered passageway, and turned it into a private residence for him and his guests. As part of the latter initiative, he commissioned a Bohemian painter, Master Wenceslaus, to decorate the second floor with a cycle of frescoes representing the sequence of the months. This cycle of frescoes is one of the finest examples of the figurative culture of the International Gothic.

(Photo: Paolo Belvedere)