Castello del Buonconsiglio

The Castle used to be the residence of the bishop princes. It is surrounded by walls fortified with low turrets. It is made up of various parts: to the north, the cylindrical tower "torre Grande" stands over the embattled "Castelvecchio". Originally built in the thirteenth century and altered in 1475 according to the gothic-venetian style, the edifice surrounds a picturesque court with frescoed portico, decorated in part by Fogliolino (1535). The so-called "giunta Albertina" situated at the centre was built in the sixteenth century and joins the northern buildings to the "Magno Palazzo" to the south. This last was commissioned in 1530 (Renaissance period) by the bishop prince Bernardo Clesio, and is characterized by a wide, splendidly frescoed portico overlooking the "cortile dei Leoni", splendidly frescoed by Girolamo Romanino in 1531-32. The castle houses the CASTELLO DEL BUONCONSIGLIO MUSEUM (open 9-12 am and 2-5 pm from October to March; until 5.30 from April to September; closed on Mondays), Trentino headquarters of the "Museo proviciale d'Arte" (Art museum of the province) which also has sections in the castles Beseno, Stenico and Thun. The museum is made up of three sections: ancient, mediaeval and modern. From the entrance, across the garden and to the right are located the cells of the patriots Damiano Chiesa, Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi, executed in the trench behind the building in 1916. The museum also contains archeological findings, works of art (coins, manuscripts, sacred objects, paintings), and ethnographic material, displayed in various rooms of the Magno Palazzo and Castelvecchio. Many of these have carved wooden ceilings, frescoed by Dosso Dossi, Romanino and Fogliolino (XVI century). Of particular interest are the frescoes which picture the twelve months of the year in Torre dell'Aquila, painted by an anonymous fourteenth-century artist in the international gothic style. For securoty measures, visits are restricted to groups of max. twenty people, escorted by museum personnel). A restored building houses the civic museum of the Risorgimento and fight for freedom (opening hours; same as Castle museum), containing mainly relics and mementoes of the irredentist movement of the first world war and of the Resistance.