Guardia Castle

In the Val Guardia valley in San Paolo rises the eponymous castle which served - such as the near Castelvecchio Castle - for control purposes along the road from Bolzano to the Oltradige area and to the Mendola Pass which leads to the Val di Non valley. In the 12th century, there was a fortified farmstead in this place. The owners in those centuries included the Counts of Appiano and of Tyrol as well as the prince-bishop of Trento. Around 1250, however, Ulrich von Altenburg transformed it into a castle with an 18 m high great hall, a curtain wall and a donjon with a dungeon.

Soon after, Guardia Castle (Schloss Warth, in German) was sold to Peter Warter, and in 1267 the Lords of Wart appeared for the first time. The farm buildings were added in the 17th century. The Earls Künigl zu Ehrenburg were its last blue-blooded owners - in the 20th century, the property passed into the hands of the Frank family which offers holiday apartments in its inside today. Particularly remarkable are the windows with decorative frames from the 14th century and the Gothic paintings in the parlour of the great hall: The year 1613 is carved into the wall panelling.