Haderburg castle (Castel Salorno in Italian) dates back to Middle Ages and is located on a soaring rock spur above the homonymous village. The castle marks the lingual border of German (or bilingual) and only Italian speaking inhabitants (South Tyrol and Trentino). The building is one of the most important monuments of South Tyrol.
Castel Salorno has been constructed by the Earls of Salorno in the 13th century. Thereupon it repeatedly changed hands, first the castle was in possession of the Lords of Tyrol, in 1284 the castle was handed on to Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia. In the 14th century the House of Habsburg owned the castle complex. In 1514, under the rule of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, the complex was enlarged and renewed. Several decades after, Castel Salorno lost its strategic significance and started to decay. Since 1648 the castle is owned by the Venetian Earls Zenobio-Albrizzi and their descendants.
Still today Castel Salorno is a really impressive complex. The current owner, baron Ernesto Rubin de Cervin Albrizzi, renovated and consolidated the castle complex by means of public funds. Since 2003 Castel Salorno has been reopened for the public and is accessible via a 890 m long steep path. Today a castle tavern with Knights’ Hall offers medieval meals and autumn dishes.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.