The magic of sleeping in a castle

Medieval soul, modern comfort

Stroll down the labyrinthine corridors, walk alongside the ivy-clad walls and admire the Mediterranean garden: beyond the battlements of the towers, you will feel the aura of another time. You are swept into the 13th century, a time of love, pain and courage; of the nobility, counts and knights of the time. Succumb to the captivating spell...

More than a thousand years ago...

... when Romansh was still spoken in the area, a manor house with a castle-like appearance was erected on a hilly promontory overlooking Appiano. Two residential towers were added a little later by the small country noble Eisenbrand von Pasquay and by the Fuchs di Montevolpe family. Following the disappearance of the first family, both towers became the property of Ulrich Fuchs, a respected and wealthy gentleman, who enlarged the structure as a fortress and also had a surrounding wall built.

The Fuchs di Montevolpe family

Subsequently, the Fuchs dynasty at Freudenstein Castle was carried on by his children and grandchildren. Specifically, at the beginning of the sixteenth century it passed into the hands of the knight Jakob Fuchs, belonging to the sixth generation of the family who renovated the entire complex, giving it the appearance we know today.

Work on the castle

As part of the renovation commissioned by Jakob Fuchs, the two residential towers were redesigned, giving them new splendour with the addition of battlements. In addition, an internal staircase was built and an inscription in Gothic characters was added above the entrance door. Finally, the chapel of Sant’Andrea was modernized in the Gothic style with pointed arches and embellished with a simple turret bell tower.

The dynasty dies out

Towards the middle of the 16th century, upon the death of the knight Jakob Fuchs, his wife and their son without heirs, the main line of the Fuchs di Montevolpe family died out. Two secondary lines of the Fuchs continued to reside at Castel Freudenstein, the Jaufenburg family (from Castel Giovo in Val Passiria) and the Lebenberg-Monteleone clan (from the castle of the same name in Marlengo). However, a few hundred years later, they too died out and the castle ceased to be the property of the Fuchs. The last owner belonging to the family was Count Ferdinando Leonardo Fuchs.

The castle in the present day

In the year 1716, Castel Freudenstein was purchased by the Trentino nobleman Carlo Bellini de Fin, after which it passed into the hands of his son-in-law Anton Felix, Count of Londron. Finally, during the last years of the 19th century it was sold to a wealthy German baron with a passion for history, Heinrich von Siebold. He completely renovated it, furnishing it with elegant antiques and precious decorative elements. Various other owners succeeded, up to the Gostner family who currently own it.