Karneid Castle


Karneid Castle is a castle in northern Italy situated in the comune of Karneid in the province of South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 4 km east of the city of Bolzano.

Historical background

A 20th century analysis of the castle by the historian :de:Martin Bitschnau|Martin Bitschnau suggests it was constructed between the late 12th and early 13th centuries CE by vassals of the Prince-Bishopric of Brixen, an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire.
The fortress stands perched dramatically on an inaccessible cliff face above the confluence of the Eggental and the Eisack rivers, on the historically resonant ancient border between the kingdoms of the Lombards and the Bavarii. The name 'Karneid' derives from the Latin "cornus" meaning “horn”.

Chronology

13th Century

1230-40
1246
1250-75
1295

14th Century

1300
1325
1348
1366
1370
1371
1375
1386
1387

15th Century

1410
1414
1450

16th Century

1506
1580

17th Century

1602

18th Century

1761
1766

19th Century

1808
1814
1838
1839
1854
1862
1878
1884

20th Century

1950

21st Century

2006

The legend of the ghost riders of Karneid

Many years ago a dreadful plague raged in the Tyrol. From his castle high on the cliffs, the lord of Karneid surveyed the devastation in the valleys below. Fearing for the safety of his wife, his children and his followers, he made a solemn vow that if God spared the castle from disease he and his followers would perform a pilgrimage to the church of Maria Weissenstein to give thanks to the Virgin Mary.
In the weeks that followed the plague gradually retreated and all those residing in Karneid escaped unharmed. There was much celebration and the pilgrimage was soon forgotten as people returned gratefully to their everyday routines.
But the terror of the Black Death soon returned to the valley and this time struck the castle, carrying off its inhabitants one by one. The knight's entire clan, his wife and his children perished. He himself was the last to pass, a year to the day after he had made his vow.
Every year on the night of the anniversary of their Lord's death, when the grapes have ripened on the vines in the valley, the cursed inhabitants of Karneid rise from their graves to fulfill their promise and perform their pilgrimage to Weissenstein. Many a pious pilgrim seeking shelter late at night has seen the Knight and his family dressed in black, slowly riding their skeletal horses up the mountain, doomed to fulfill their vow for all eternity.

Extract from John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Supplementary Volume III: South Tyrōl, Around Lake Garda, The Dolomites (1903)

"A remarkable gateway to the Dolomites is the majestic gorge, directly opposite Botzen, known as the Eggen Thal. This suffers nothing by comparism with the other portals. Indeed, to its extraordinary vestibule may be awarded the primacy of the picturesque. A mighty strip of porphyry, forty miles in length, thirteen in breadth and several thousand feet in height stretches along the western border of the Dolomites and its huge, purplish walls form a conspicuous feature in the landscapes near Meran and Botzen. One section of its blood-red cliffs, just east of the latter city, is perforated by a deep gash, several miles in length, from which emerges a tumultuous torrent. This gash is called the Eggen Thal. Into its sombre shadow winds a carriage road constructed at great cost and with enormous difficulty, which gradually ascends the cañon, passing beneath vast, overhanging precipices, crossing repeatedly the tortuous stream by means of massive bridges and even taking refuge within tunnels, at points where some concession to the opposition of the raging tunnels becomes essential. It is a solemn entrance, especially when one has some acquaintance with the Dolomite peaks which lie beyond, and knows what weird and awful shapes they can assume. On this account, the Eggen Thal is probably the most appropriate avenue of approach to those mysterious mountains. It is a corridor of time, that leads us from old igneous rocks, forged in the earths fiery furnace when our globe was young, to coral reefs, on which the ocean waves once broke in glittering spray, but which now sparkle in the frosty air, ten thousand feet above their early home. At times one looks up almost timidly between these jaws of ruddy porphyry toward the narrow streak of blue, so far away. It seems like a celestial river, whose noiselessness, limpidity and calm present a great contrast to the maddened stream beside us, as our deal of heaven differs from the storms and sorrows of this earthly life."
"Moreover, that nothing may be wanting to complete the romance of this gorge, there looms above it, at a dizzy height, Schloss Karneid - one of the mediæval castles which play so prominent a rôle in both the scenery and history of Tirol. All of these strongholds have their interesting records of achievement - some of them chivalrous, most of them cruel, all of them remarkable. Karneid for example, was the home of the Lichtensteins, who ranked already at the commencement of the 12th Century among the strongest of the Tirolean families. In the great struggle for supremacy that arose between Habsburg Archduke Frederick and the ambitious nobles of the Tirol, the masters of this fortress where the formers bitterest foes, and if an undertaking of unusual danger was ever demanded in that arduous strife, the Lichtensteins were always ready to attempt it. In the fact, the name 'A Lichtenstein' was synonymous with one who then sought absolute independence form the archduke's sovereignty. Accordingly, in 1409, Frederick laid siege to Karneid with a powerful army, captured it finally by storm, and dragged its owners into captivity. Nor were they set at liberty until Oswald von Wolkenstein - Minnesinger, warrior and the soul of the rebellion - secured their freedom by a heavy ransom. In 1760 Count Anton von Lichtenstein, the last of his race, died in his ancient stronghold, which then came into possession of the city of Botzen. But it was speedily sold by the municipality and is now the property of a wealthy and artistic citizen of Munich."