Trento and the Buonconsiglio Castle
The Cycle of the Months in the Torre Aquila
On the eastern edge of the historic centre of Trento, the Castello del Buonconsiglio is the largest and most important monumental complex in the region. From the thirteenth century until 1803 it was the residence of the prince-bishops of Trento, who ruled a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, and it is made up of buildings of different eras: the medieval Castelvecchio, with its Venetian Gothic loggia; the Magno Palazzo, the sumptuous Renaissance residence built in the sixteenth century by Cardinal Bernardo Cles, with halls frescoed by Girolamo Romanino and Dosso Dossi; and the baroque Giunta Albertiana.
The greatest treasure is in the Torre Aquila, a tower along the walls: the Cycle of the Months, painted around 1400 for Bishop Georg von Liechtenstein, one of the masterpieces of International Gothic painting. On the walls of a small room, eleven panels (March was lost) depict the months of the year with an extraordinary wealth of details: nobles who court, dance and play in the snow with snowballs, and peasants who plough, sow, harvest and make wine, against a background of castles, villages and mountains. The castle also houses the provincial art collections and, in the moat, the Fossa dei Martiri, the place where in 1916 the Austrians executed the irredentist Cesare Battisti, a deputy of the Vienna parliament who had fought for Italy, together with Fabio Filzi and Damiano Chiesa.
Tip: the Torre Aquila can only be visited with a guided tour, to be booked at the ticket office; allow at least two hours for the whole castle.
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