Castel Tasso

Burg Reifenstein, known in Italian as Castel Tasso, rises on a low hill south of Vipiteno. Described as South Tyrol's best-preserved castle, it combines a twelfth-century keep, Teutonic Order halls and later Thurn und Taxis stewardship.

Why it matters

The regional tourism board describes Reifenstein as the best-preserved castle complex in Alto Adige; it was never conquered or destroyed, and ten rooms survive in excellent condition. First documented in 1110, it was the principal stronghold of the Bishops of Bressanone in the Wipptal and administered lands around present-day Vipiteno.

What to notice

The keep, built in the twelfth century, remains a defining feature of the castle. A defensive wall about 150 metres long was added around 1580.

The Teutonic Order furnished the Green Hall with late Gothic decoration and a carved wooden grille. The complex also preserves a smoke kitchen, soldiers' and servants' dormitories, a courtroom, a torture chamber and an underground prison. Excavations in the adjoining church of San Zeno uncovered Lombard-era tree-trunk coffins dating from the fourth to eighth centuries.

Context and history

The castle began as the bishops' administrative seat, and wall remains on the southern slope point to an eleventh-century origin. In 1209–10 it passed to Count Albert III of Tyrol and became a princely residence; the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries brought a powerful residential tower, a kitchen and a protective curtain wall. The fief was held last by the lords of Säben, whose line ended with Oswald von Säben in 1465.

In 1470 Duke Sigmund of Tyrol sold the castle to the Teutonic Order, which already held its Tyrolean seat in Bolzano and the commandery at Vipiteno. The Order added a new palace, a chapter hall and the Green Hall; no later additions are recorded after about 1580. Custodians drawn mostly from noble families near Vipiteno managed the house for nearly three and a half centuries. After the Order's dissolution in the Napoleonic upheavals, the Bavarian government granted the castle in 1813 to Count Alexander von Thurn und Taxis as compensation for confiscated postal rights. The family repaired the roofs, restored the rooms and still owns Reifenstein today.