Schloss Rodenegg

Rodenegg Castle is located northeast of Brixen in the municipality of Rodeneck in South Tyrol. The castle is clearly visible from the Pustertal road between Schabs and Mühlbach, stretched out on a narrow rock spur that drops steeply on three sides to the Rienz gorge. It was built in the first half of the 12th century by Friedrich I von Rodank and originally probably consisted only of a residential tower and a palas. The Lords of Rodank were an important ministerial family who remained in possession of the castle until their extinction around 1300. After that, it was under Tyrolean-princely administration for almost 200 years and appears in 1384 in the context of the Tyrolean manorial system (herschaft von Tyrol) as vest ze Rodenkchen. In 1491, the complex passed to the Barons (and later Counts) von Wolkenstein-Rodenegg, who enlarged it in the 16th century and converted it into a castle-like structure. The regional description by Marx Sittich von Wolkenstein from approx. 1600 dedicates a separate section to schloss Rottneckh and its judicial district. The founder of the Wolkenstein-Rodenegg line was Oswald von Wolkenstein; his descendants are still in possession of the castle today.

Rodenegg Castle is in good condition today; a part of it is even still inhabited. Inside there is a museum and original furniture from the late Renaissance period. The main attraction is the fresco cycle on Hartmann von Aue's Iwein epic, discovered in 1972 and subsequently uncovered, which is considered the oldest profane wall painting in the German-speaking world (created between 1200 and 1230). Also worth seeing are the castle chapel of St. Michael, the armory, the bakery, the dungeon, the castle garden and the so-called Lauterfresserloch, a narrow dungeon where Mathias Perger, the legendary Lauterfresser (because of his preference for "Lauteres" = soups), was once imprisoned. In 1645, a sensational trial was held against him at Rodenegg Castle, in which he was sentenced to death by burning at the stake for witchcraft.