A castle with an old soul and a youthful spirit

As you walk through the winding corridors and past ivy-adorned walls, and cast your glance over the battlements out into the Mediterranean park, you will feel right at the heart of a story that began in the 13th century. These ancient walls tell tales of noble families, counties and knights, and of courage, love and pain intertwined.

More than seven hundred years ago...

… when this region was still part of the Roman Empire, two residential towers were built here on this gentle hill in Eppan by the minor nobleman Eisenbrand von Pasquay and the Fuchs von Fuchsberg family. After von Pasquay passed away, the towers were acquired by Ulrich Fuchs von Fuchsberg, a wealthy and respected gentleman who had the estate expanded to a castle, completed with a curtain wall.

The Fuchs line

The Freudenstein line of the Fuchs family continued with Ulrich’s sons and grandsons. At the beginning of the 16th century, the castle passed down to the sixth generation, in the person of knight Jakob Fuchs von Fuchsberg. Jakob had the two-towered mansion renovated into Schloss Freudenstein as we know it today.

The end of the Fuchs line

In the mid-16th century, with the death of Jakob, his wife and their childless son, the main Fuchs line ceased to exist, and the same fate was suffered soon afterwards by its two collateral lines, which resided for a long time at Freudenstein, namely the lines of Jaufenburg (named after the Jaufenburg castle in the Passeier valley) and Lebenberg (named after the homonymous castle in Marling, near Meran). The last Fuchs family member to own Schloss Freudenstein was Count Ferdinand Leonhard Fuchs. After a few hundred years, the dynasty ended, and the Fuchs’ ownership of the castle with it.

A new era for Schloss Freudenstein

In 1716 the castle came into the possession of nobleman Carlo Bellini de Fin from Trento, who later passed it down to his son-in-law Anton Felix Grafen von Lodron. At the end of the 19th century, the castle was acquired by Baron Heinrich Freiherr von Siebold, a gentleman from the German empire, who had it extensively renovated and enhanced its interiors with a collection of antique furniture and fine ornaments. The castle then changed hands several times until it was acquired by the Gostner family.

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