Latsch Castle

Latsch Castle
	Latsch Castle
Creation time :	13th Century
Castle type :	Niederungsburg
Conservation status:	Mostly preserved
Standing position :	Noble Free
Place:	Laces
Geographical location	46 ° 37 '5.2 " N , 10 ° 51' 35.2" E Coordinates: 46 ° 37 '5.2 " N , 10 ° 51' 35.2" E
Height:	639 m slm

Latsch Castle is a medieval building and a former moated castle in the center of the municipality of Latsch in Vinschgau in South Tyrol . Originally it was just a crenellated five-storey residential tower surrounded by a moat (unique in the entire Vinschgau) . However, later modifications and additions changed the facility so much that the original impression was completely blurred. The residential tower has a height of 21 meters and measures 8 meters square. The entrance used to be on the first floor, remains of the wall suggest that there must have been a lavatory bay on the northern wall . Late Gothic parts of the building suggest a renovation in the 15th century, and a chapel may have been built in the northern courtyard during the same period and consecrated to St. Mary in 1472. At the entrance there is another coat of arms of the von Annenberg family from the 15th century.

history

The tower, first mentioned in 1297 as "turris magna in Laetsch", was probably built by the Tyrolean sovereign, Count Meinhard II , who gave it to the "officialis" Otto von Latsch as a fief . The latter is mentioned for the first time in the Tyrolean Rait books in 1290, from where he exercised the lower jurisdiction .

After the seat of the court was relocated to Schlanders , the castle came in 1313 by inheritance from Heinrich Marschall von Laubers to Heinrich von Thurm zu Meran and Partschins from the family of the Tolde von Meran (also called Heinrich von Partschins). When Heinrich died in 1364, the brothers Heinrich, Konrad, Anton and Johann shared the paternal inheritance among themselves. Latsch Castle fell to Heinrich von Annenberg. In the possession of this family, who called themselves "von Annenberg" and also owned the Annenberg Castle, Latsch Castle remained until the death of the last Annenberger, Leopold von Annenberg, in 1695. The building then came to the by inheritance Count Hendl , who had their seat at the neighboring Goldrain Castle . After the court building in Schlanders was burned down during the Swabian War , probably as a direct result of the Battle of Calven , thought was given to relocating the court back to the Tower of Latsch - a project that was not implemented.

In 1770 a fire broke out in the castle, which led to the total loss of the building. A reconstruction did not take place, Empress Maria Theresa gave the castle, which was called a ruin at that time, to Count Johann Michael von Mohr as a fief. The Count Mohr already owned several properties in the Vinschgau Valley, such as the Obermontani and Untermontani castles .

In 1813 a new church was built in Latsch and, as is often the case, the castle ruins were used as a quarry. A Juliana von Martin then bought the ruins in 1826 and began the restoration in 1842, which, however, completely changed the appearance of the former moated castle by adding or adding buildings to the tower.

About Josefa von Braitenberg, geb. Martin, Burg Latsch then came into the possession of Dr. Franz von Braitenberg from Bozen , whose family finally sold the castle to the farmer Hermann Oberhofer from Latsch around 1950. The Oberhofer family, who still own the castle today, had extensive renovation work carried out both inside and outside in the years 2002–2007. Entry is not possible.

literature

Josef Weingartner : Tyrolean castles . Innsbruck 1962
Oswald Trapp : Tiroler Burgenbuch. Volume I: Vinschgau . Athesia publishing house, Bozen 1972, pp. 166–169.
Market town of Latsch (Ed.): Latsch and its history Tappeiner, Lana o. J.

Web links

Commons : Burg Latsch - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry for Latsch Castle in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office