Wolfsthurn Castle, Mareta

Wolfsthurn Castle in Mareta, Italy, began as a medieval defensive site and developed into an 18th-century Baroque residence. A stone tower was erected in the early 1200s, and the place later became associated with local feudal authority; its long occupation and later remodelling mark it as a notable local seat of noble ownership and regional administration.

In the 13th century the Counts of Tyrol took control of the site and granted it as a fief to a ministerial named Rudolfus Lupus, called Rudolf the Wolf, a name that gave rise to the castle’s present designation. A family known locally by the name Wolf, recorded in one source as extinguished in 1464, disappears from the record in the late fifteenth century.

Ownership passed in 1574 to the Grebmer noble family. About two centuries later the complex came into the hands of the Sternbach family. Under Franz Andreas von Sternbach the medieval castle was largely reworked between 1727 and 1741, the former fortifications being rebuilt as a fortified Baroque residence while only portions of the original keep were left standing. The planned remodelling followed an architect’s designs; the individual who directed the building work is not named.

Since 1996 the building’s lower floor has been used for the South Tyrol Provincial Museum of Hunting and Fishing. Rooms on the upper floor interpret the castle and its past, and some of the principal reception rooms retain their Baroque appearance. The present owners are members of the Sternbach family. Local tradition holds that the house contains 365 windows, a detail often mentioned in descriptions of the property.