Prosels Castle
Prosels Castle is situated on a high plateau to the land title settlement in South Tyrol. Prosels Castle stands with its medieval figure below the Schlern mountain in the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen.
Today's palace is only a replica of one that was built in the 15th century as the fortification of Prosels Castle dated two centuries back in time to the 13th century.
Furthermore, the fortification of the original castle, built in the 13th century on the high plateau, dates the central part of the palace with its Romanesque arches. Overall, the architectural style of the castle Prosels is Gothic. An important figure in the history of the medieval palace is Prosels Castle - Leonhard of Völs, who was born in 1458.
He was an very alert man and worked as manager of the salt mines near Innsbruck. For a short time he managed to accumulate a lot of capital and became a nobleman's features. It was about 1500 when the medieval manor house became into a beautiful palace.
Leonard was part of the then persecution of the magic community in the Italian South Tyrol, with the result that even today many stories and legends of secret witchcraft and witches are told. The so-called "Sternturm" was also built around 1500. The name comes from the picture of the gable of the tower, which shows signs of the zodiac.
Murals over the arcades of the castle also date from the time of Leonard. Visitors can see the owner, depicted as a horseman, but left to him is a standing figure of Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg. The emperor was a close friend of Leonard and under his patronage he climbed to the highest social rank in the Tyrol.
At that time the common people suffered from high mortality, especially in newborns and ordinary villagers accused Leonard about it. In seeking to come clean on the situation of the rich Leonard invented nine women accused of witchcraft and cast blame on them. Women were brutally tortured to admit that they stole babies and mounted brooms and uploaded them to the highest peak in the region where the witches had eaten the babies with the devil.
Today, these stories of wizards and witches favorably affect tourism in Prosels Castle. The last member of the family of Leonard died in 1810. After his death the Prosels Castle was abandoned for about 50 years almost until it had entirely fallen into ruins.
From 1860 to 1978 the Prosels Castle had changed objectives from fourteen different owners. One of them was Alexander Franz von Günther, who bought the castle in 1887 and turned it into what today is considered the recreation of the original appearance of the Prosels Castle.
After the death of members of that family, the castle passed into the hands of a specially formed organization that took care of Prosels Castle since 1981. Today the castle is open to the public as it hosts different concerts, theatrical performances, art exhibitions and even weddings. Many young couples get married in the chapel of this historic castle.
