The apple trees are arranged in rows and are flat, rather than rounded, which I suppose makes for ease of picking.
We drove first to Cles, where we caught the train to Caldes. The castle is just outside Caldes station. Our guide told is that Caldes is named for a hot spring which was found near the river in the valley below. You may just be able to make out the river in my photo above, thought it’s rather low at the moment. The photo was taken from just below the castle. As we looked at the river, we could see canoes and rubber rafts making use of the white water.
The original castle was just a tower, built by the da Cagnò family beside the north-south road through the Val di Sole so they could control and tax the trade that passed along the road. Our guide said timber was exported to Austria and salt imported from Germany along the road. The original tower was also a house. Further control was exerted by the building of another tower high on the mountain above Caldes.
This isn’t a great photo, it’s been zoomed 5 times and expanded some more by editing out some of the vegetation above and below, but it gives an idea of what the original tower might have looked like.
In 1464 the last of the family died and the castle was inherited by his cousins, so ownership of the castle passed to the rich and influential Thun family, who owned a great deal of property in the region. They gradually expanded the building, incorporating the tower into a square plan building, which was further increased over the centuries.
The original tower is the right-hand side of the building, with the rather traditional looking roof. The sloping roof on the left is the later building. Just to complete the castle’s history, it was sold to a local family in the 1880s and allowed to fall into decay. It is now owned by the province of Trento and has been restored.
You enter into what is now a large room but was once a courtyard, as you can see from the cobbled floor.
Once it was a room adjacent to the kitchen. The huge hooks in the ceiling were for hanging meat.
The rooms upstairs are more comfortable. This was the Count’s study.
It is in the original castle tower, but has been made more comfortable by being panelled in fir wood which has been decorated with stencilled plant motifs. The ceiling and floor are also wood, for warmth, and there is a 17th century majolica stove by the door. The current furnishings were recently donated to the restored castle by another family, but are in keeping with the castle’s appearance in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We went up a spiral staircase to see a tiny room with a sad story, as it was used as a prison for a daughter who fell in love with somebody considered unsuitable. The original story was then turned into the legend of Olinda, a girl during the medieval period who fell in love with a minstrel, was imprisoned by her father in the tiny room which she painted with floral motifs, before being found dead.
The legend is based on actual happenings in the 17th century, when Maria Elisabetta Thun fell in love with the son of a doctor and tried to elope with him. She was imprisoned by her brother and died a year later.
Outside the castle is a chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and probably built some time in the 1560s. It is covered with frescos, now partly destroyed, probably around 1629.
This is one of the more complete ones, which is probably the Virgin Mary on her deathbed - she certainly looks pretty ill. Also it faces the one of her Assumption into Heaven.
I liked this one because of the attempt at trompe l’oeil architectural effects below it. Possibly other panels had a similar treatment, but so many bits of the fresco are gone.
After the castle visit, we drove back to Cles for lunch. It was very hot again, and we thought it was just too hot to explore the small town, so we found a restaurant and spent our time there. Cles is probably typical of many small Italian towns in the area, although this one has a special exhibition of brightly coloured fibreglass animals all round the town.
We thought this might be the town hall. In which case the snail could possibly be a comment about local politics!
After lunch we returned to the hotel and fell asleep again. Tonight, it’s packing as we leave tomorrow morning.
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