The large five-floor tower house from the 13th century was donated to the Thun family, who incorporated it into a new square building, the current Caldes Castle.
The inside is fascinating, with vaulted ceilings, wood panelling and frescoed rooms. Quite remarkable are the count’s room and the ballroom. After climbing the tower’s wooden staircase, you enter a room with frescoes all over the walls, telling ancient stories about the imprisonment of the unfortunate young countess Marianna Elisabetta Thun. Legend has it that the frescoes in the small room, known as Olinda’s prison, are her own work.
The Castle belongs to the Autonomous Province of Trento, that restored it and turned it into a prestigious venue for exhibitions and cultural events.
References:Dryburgh Abbey on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders was founded in 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland. The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place in 1152.
It was burned by English troops in 1322, after which it was restored only to be again burned by Richard II in 1385, but it flourished in the fifteenth century. It was finally destroyed in 1544, briefly surviving until the Scottish Reformation, when it was given to the Earl of Mar by James VI of Scotland. It is now a designated scheduled monument and the surrounding landscape is included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan bought the land in 1786. Sir Walter Scott and Douglas Haig are buried in its grounds.