MURDER AND A MEAL IN THE MOUNTAIN MISTS
Northern Italy’s Romantic Castle Toblino
On
the road between Rovereto and Riva del Garda, north of
Lago Garda (see also Riva
Del Garda, Lake Playground), you come to a round-turreted
castle on the small and beautiful
Lake Toblino, nestled in a narrow deep valley between the Dolomite cliffs.
Originally a pre-historic camp and then a Roman site, the
grounds were
established
in the pre-medieval
times as a lake fortress, and the current form is the result of a 16th
century construction, creating one of the most romantic castles in the
Trentino region of Northern Italy. There is a stone in the castle’s
portico with an inscription stating a temple was located here in the
3rd Century dedicated to the “Worship of the Fates”. The
castle was expropriated by the Church of Trento in 1459 and Cardinal
Bernardo Clesio had it rebuilt in the Renaissance style. In 1703 the
Italian Castel became the target of French General Vendôme’s
conquest of the Sarca valley (see Castle
Beseno).
In 1848 when the Italians ruling
Trentino were defeated by the Austro-Hungarians, this Italian storybook
castle in the Dolomite Mountains became the property
of the Wolkenstein family. The foggy mists which rise off the lake have
invoked centuries of romantic and dark tragic legends, chiefly sagas
of forbidden love and the poisoning of the beautiful Claudia Particelli
by the Bishop of Trento to cover his illicit affair, and other stories
of gold treasure hidden from the French invaders in tunnels under the
lake. Even Benito Mussolino (who met his own dark fate not far from
here)
apparently
wrote a serialized
novel about the murder mystery surrounding the castle.
Resting
on a lakeside perch just off the curving mountain road, stopping
for a lunch while on a
wine tasting trip through the Trentino wine region on the lower
terrace provides a stunning view of the silvery lake waters. If
staying in the area, the main castle hosts a popular
excellent restaurant offering elegant dining in renaissance splendor
in the halls decorated by the some of the same 15th century artists
who
frescoed
the ceilings of Castle Buonconsiglio in nearby Trento. The cellars
at Toblino offers a variety of local wines and every April the castle
hosts the Nosiola Wine Festival (see Wine
Roads of Trentino) © Bargain
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Castel Toblino Restaurant
Other North Italy Castles see
CASTELLO
BUONCONSIGLIO
CASTELLO
di AVIO
CASTLE
ARCO
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SEE ALSO:
BAROQUE ETTAL BASILICA BAVARIA
