TAUFERS CASTLE

When I was seven years old, I went on holiday with my family to Trentino Alto Adige.
I remember that one day I went to visit the wonderful medieval castle of Taufers.
The castle had defensive walls and you could enter through a big bridge.
It consists of 64 rooms, 24 of which are in wood.
The tour guide was a young girl who explained the history of the castle to us.
To get to the Knights armoury, we had to cross a long corridor in which there were iron armours of soldiers
holding a sharp sword in their hands.
I imagined that someone was standing guard inside them and I was terrified.
Then the guide took us into the basement to visit the torture room and the prisons and to reach them there
was a long spiral staircase made of rock, to illuminate the way we had lanterns.
But the place that most impressed me was the room of the Spirits: a legend tells that the young
Countess Margarethe Von Taufers had fallen in love with the captain of the castle guards and decided to
marry him.
Her family was against it and Margarethe’s father killed him. The countess lived in despair for seven years
until she threw herself out of the window and died.
Her lamentations can still be heard in that room. How frightening!
For me, that was an unforgettable experience, and from that day, I slept in bed with my parents for a
month!