This Castle/Royal Palace was the residence of the Prince-Bishops of Trento, its massive structures and high walls concealing gardens of various origins and souvenirs of our history.
In the late 14th century, Bishop George of Liechtenstein equipped this originally 13th-century castle with a garden. In the second half of the 15th century, Prince-Bishop John Hinderbach paid special attention to the garden. Leading up to the Council of Trent, it was Bishop Bernardo Cles who, between 1527 and 1536, commissioned the magnificent “Magno Palazzo” wing, as well as a new arrangement of the gardens, in particular the “zardino de sotto” and the small “zardino de sora” (the former hanging garden, which today is the Cortile dei Leoni). The gardens we see today were modified in the third quarter of the 18th century, almost completely stripped away during the Habsburg period, and then restored by Giuseppe Gerola (first Superintendent of Italian Trento) in the 1920s, at the same time as the monumental complex was restored and the Museum established. Nowadays, the lower garden, with its clear geometric composition, bordered by a pergola on columns with heirloom vines and recent roses, is divided into two areas: one with a simple lawn and shaped hedges, the other, after the access avenue to Palazzo Magno, is organized in flower beds, with osmanthus plants in the centre and topiary yew trees in the corners, arranged around a circular space that once housed a Fountain of Neptune. The original pomarium, still planted with fruit trees, sits beyond a tall crenellated wall.
Highlights
The Martyrs’ Pit
Initially a defensive moat, today it houses a memorial to the fallen during the uprisings of 1848, and execution of irredentist patriots Fabio Filzi, Damiano Chiesa and Cesare Battisti in 1916, remembered by stones in the flowerbeds.
The Eagle Tower
Located at the southern end of the complex, inside the tower is the famous Cycle of the Months, one of the most fascinating pictorial cycles on a profane theme, offering images of the Trentino landscape at the end of the 14th century, commissioned under the episcopate of Giorgio di Liechtenstein (1390-1419). Some of the details most likely refer to the “Tacuinum sanitatis”, an illustrated handbook of medicine and botany.
The Courtyard of the Lions
Created on what was once a 15th-century hanging garden, this rectangular space has four lawn beds defined by orthogonal paths, at the height of the first floor in Magno Palazzo. A five-arched loggia features valuable 16th-century frescoes by Girolamo Romani, also known as “Il Romanino”. A cave-like niche, the remains of a much richer and more complex structure from the time of Bishop Cles, fills the eastern side.