A legacy

to share and protect

A short history

of Castel Ivano

Because of its location between Austria and Tyrol, and later Italy and Feltre, Castel Ivano, through its millennium old history, stood many an event and several landlords.

The core of the Castle was a defence manor built by the Lombards (VI-VIII sec a.C.) during the great barbarian invasions after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This occurred approx. in 590 a.C., when the Lombards built new fortresses in Valsugana - next to the military street called Claudia Augusta Altinate - to protect themselves from the attacks by the Fancs and Allemans.

The Lombards left Italy in 774 a.C. and since then the Valsugana went under the Francs and their king Charle Magne, the future Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire. Under the kingdom of Berengarius, great grandson of Charles Magne, the valley was invaded by the Hungarians and this led to a further development of the existing defence fortresses. The size of the manor was therefore extended. In 1027, by grant and grace of the Emperor Conrad II the Salian to the Bishop of Feltre who ruled over the territory of the lower Valsugana, Castel Ivano was placed under Venetian jurisdiction.

The first historical record about the Castle dates back to 1187 and mention is made a Lord called Ivano. In 1228, the ruling by the Bishops and Counts of Feltre was over, Castel Ivano and lower Valsugana became the prey, for almost 200 years, of fights between a number of Lords, such as Ezzelino da Romano, the da Caminos, the Scaligeris from Verona, the Carraresis, and Gian Galeazzo Visconti. It was approximately 1375, under the Carraresis, the coat of arms of the House – four wheels and two bars of a cart - was put on the tower of Castel Ivano. In 1413, the lower stretch of the Valsugana was annexed to the County of Tyrol and became part of the Austrian House of Augsburg, and therefore Castel Ivano went under their ruling.

Castel Ivano first went under the ruling of the Captains of Faith, and later by the Tyrolian family of the Wolkenstein-Trostburg that managed the feud as a pawn for the money that was lent to the throne by them until 1750, when Empress Marie Therese of Austria granted in perpetuity the feud to the family. Catel Ivano was ruled by a number of Captains among whom Giorgio Pucler, killed by the local farmers during some riots, the so-called “war of the farmers” that began in 1525 in Tyrol and in the region of Trient against the aristocrats in an attempt by the farmers to free themselves from fuedal laws.

A few years before, the Emperor Maximilian I of Augsburg visited Castel Ivano when traveling through the Valsugana during the political riots caused by the invasions from the Venitians (1504). He went to trient where he proclaimed himself Elected Roman Emperor on February 4, 1508.

Castel Ivano first went under the ruling of the Captains of Faith, and later by the Tyrolian family of the Wolkenstein-Trostburg that managed the feud as a pawn for the money that was lent to the throne by them until 1750, when Empress Marie Therese of Austria granted in perpetuity the feud to the family. Catel Ivano was ruled by a number of Captains among whom Giorgio Pucler, killed by the local farmers during some riots, the so-called “war of the farmers” that began in 1525 in Tyrol and in the region of Trient against the aristocrats in an attempt by the farmers to free themselves from fuedal laws. A few years before, the Emperor Maximilian I of Augsburg visited Castel Ivano when traveling through the Valsugana during the political riots caused by the invasions from the Venitians (1504). He went to trient where he proclaimed himself Elected Roman Emperor on February 4, 1508.

Personaggi Famosi

La storia del castello vissuta attraverso i personaggi famosi

Antonio Maria Wolkenstein (1832-1913)
Descendant of the Tyrolian family Wolkenstein–Trostburg, the landlords of the Castel Ivano from 1750 through 1923, he was born on August 2, 1832 in Bohemia. He studied law in Prague and was granted important missions by the government in Vienna. He was Ambassador in Mosow, Paris and Rome. When in Berlin, he met and married Countess Maria von Buch, ten years younger than him, the widow of Count Alexander von Schleinitz, the Home Minister of the Kindom of Prussia. In 1893, the then Count Antonio inherited from his brother Leopold, the Castle of Toblino and the Castel Ivano where he died in 1913.
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
In 1882, the famous German composer moved to Venice with his wife Cosima, Franz Litz’s daughter. From there, he went to Valsugana and was often a guest at Castel Ivano. In the painting titled “Solitudine” by Eugenio Prati, a painter from Valsugana, and now at the MART, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Wagner is in a wonderful beechwood: a tribute by the artist to the composer after his death. One of the rooms of the Castle is named after him.
Eleonora Duse (1858-1924)
Theatrical actress fro the Venetian region who used to frequently go to the Roncegno Spa in Valsugana, and loved to stay at Count Antonio and Maria’s beautiful manor. There is still a room named after her in the “Old Archives” aisle.
Eugenio Prati (1842-1907)
A renown painter from Caldonazzo, he was regarded to be one of the best interpreters of the late 19th c. painting art in the Trentino region. Eugenio Prati used to often be a guest at the Castle and used to be very close to Antonio and Maria Wolkenstein. He loved being at the manor and painted it in many of his works and sketches. One of his first paintings – Golden Anniversary – that went to the National Exhibition of Milano in 1881 features the Castle on the background, seen from the village of Strigno, while in a painting called Inverno, the Castle is seen from the hill of Agnedo, the village where Prati used to live with his wife and children. The precision of his painting which had been made at the end of the 19th c., and the detailed visual description of its layout as seen from the village of Ivano Fracena in Castel Ivano left a precious historical testimony of the manor which had hugely been damaged during the First World War.
Don Giuseppe Grazioli (1808-1891)
priest born in Lavis. In 1842, he was appointed the parish priest of Ivano Fracena upon request of Count Leopold Wolkenstein, and remained there for 27 years. He used to perform religious services in both the parish church and chapel of the Castle. He became known mainly because of his many trips to Asia to buy healthy silkworms to be brought back to his homeland in the attempt to fight against a disease that was killing off the local ones. At the end of his career, he retired in his home in Villa Agnedo.
Ermanno Olmi (1931-2018)
He was an italian film director, screen writer, director of photography and stage designer.
He shot his famous Venice Leone winning film “Lunga vita alla Signora” at Castel Ivano.
Castel Ivano became a venue fot international events and conferences since the Eighties and hosted many famous guests, among whom
Generale Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (1920-1982)
A second lieutenant in the Carabinieri during the Second World War, he took part in the War of Liberation. Commander of the Palermo Legion (1966-73), Brigadier General in Turin (1973-77), in May 1977 he took on the duties of coordinator of the security service of the prevention and punishment institutes and in September 1978 those of coordinator of the police forces for the fight against terrorism, Special Anti-Terrorism Nucleus, in which he achieved significant successes. A division general in Milan (1979-81), deputy commander of the Force (1981-82), in May 1982 he was appointed prefect of Palermo to fight the Mafia there. In September of the same year he was killed in a Mafia ambush together with his wife and an escort agent. On 10 July he was married in the chapel of Castel Ivano to the young prison guard Emanuela Setti Carraro.
Many other famous people have recently been to Castel Ivano, which has been the venue for international conferences since the early 1980s, to name but a few: Prof. D.C. Gajdusek (Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976), Prof. K. Bloch (Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1964), Carlo Rubbia (Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984) and even Prof. Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986).
Vittorio Staudacher (1913-2005)
A graduate in Medicine from the University of Padua, he was director of the Division of Emergency Surgery at the Policlinico di Milano. He carried out major experimental research on liver and lung transplants, the 'father' of emergency surgery, esteemed both in Italy and abroad for which he was recognised as the absolute priority in the world. He was the first in Italy to perform a human heart-lung transplant in 1983. From 1983 to 1986 he was President of Ospedale Maggiore.