CASTEL VALER, HOME OF THE EARLS OF SPAUR

We cross the stone bridge and scenically enter Castel Valer, with its high tower looming up, above the hills of Val di Non.  

This living castle is not a museum, but an actual home. The home of a noble family, the Earls of Spaur, who lived here for centuries. Today, Castel Valer opens its doors to everyone, and at every step it reminds us that it is still a home with family warmth, with its original furnishings and objects.  

Inside, you can visit different environments, accompanied by guides who make the tour a real interesting experience. Courtyards and gardens, noble rooms and studies, the Gothic kitchen, the splendid loggia with a view over the apple orchards and the magnificent halls, such as the Hall of the Coats of Arms and the great Ulrico Hall, enriched with furniture and furnishings, tapestries, paintings and everyday objects accumulated over time immemorial, and which have been part of the lives of 26 generations of Spaurs.

Who are the Earls of Spaur?

We know that Count Ulrico was the last of the Spaurs to live in Castel Valer, until he passed away a few years ago. The Count was quite a character, always elegant in his Tyrolean loden jackets. He loved spending time within these walls, participating in the house tours, and filling guests in on anecdotes and family stories. Strongly attached to the castle and its traditions, he did all he could to ensure that this heritage was not lost and that the castle remained open for tours - strictly guided, as he and his heirs dictated. 

The origin of the Spaur family can be traced back to Volcmaro of Burgstall, originally from Postal, a small hamlet south of Merano. In the early 14th century, Volcmaro was granted the Sporo Castle, at the entrance to the Val di Non, as a fiefdom from the Tyrol. 
The German-speaking family comes from South Tyrol, but it should be noted that in these places, from the Valle dell'Adige to the Val di Non, language and culture are crossed by a labile border, where mountains and valleys were more of a link than a barrier.   

Castel Valer already existed before belonging to the Spaurs, and there are mentions of it in documents dating back to the 12th century.  
The Spaurs, allies of the powerful Earls of Tyrol, obtained the castle as a fief from the latter in 1427.  
There are actually two castles, completely independent and joined by a narrow corridor, which cling together around the high tower. At present, only the Untervaler Castle can be visited, but from 2026 the other residence, Obervaler, will also be open to visitors. 

Why is it called Castel Valer?

The name comes from the Chapel dedicated to St Valerius (Bishop of Trier, Germany). Or we could also think that the name Valer recalls the word "valore" (value) by assonance, referring to those who lived there. In any case, the Chapel of San Valerio is indeed the most beautiful place in the castle and leaves all visitors in awe.  

See those frescoes?

The colourful Chapel of San Valerio is entirely decorated by the very well-preserved frescoes painted by Giovanni and Battista Baschenis, from the Averara family of painters, in the Bergamo area. It was precisely here that these wandering painters completed their best works, even if compared to several churches frescoed by the Baschenis brothers in the rest of Val di Non, probably because the Earls of Spaur had more wealth to spare than other local families, and sure enough they wanted their family chapel to excel in quality and beauty. Greater availability, better raw materials, and certainly a more demanding clientele are behind these frescoes, with truly astonishing colours and beauty.

The Uncle in the Stube

There are no legends about ghosts or damsels locked in the tower at Castel Valer. Nevertheless, the castle holds many family stories, which Count Ulrico also loved to tell. One example is the story of Peter Spaur, uncle of Count Ulrico, an Alpine officer who fell on the Russian front in January 1943. The Earls decided that the room should always remain the same, in perpetual memory of the uncle who died at war, untouched, as Peter Spaur had left it: on a small table, there is still the cigar he was smoking before leaving for the front: "I'll finish this when I get back," he said.

And the spinet? Is it really Mozart's? 

Another story is about the harpsichord located in the castle hall. Technically, it is a spinet, an instrument somewhat smaller than a harpsichord. Count Ulrico claimed that Mozart might have played on it, although this hypothesis has never been confirmed. What is certain is that Mozart composed a mass as a tribute to his family, and specifically for Ignaz Spaur, Bishop of Innsbruck, whose portrait is hung right next to the harpsichord. 

A Tennis Hall

The large Ulrico Hall is the reception hall. However, it wasn’t always as curated for as it is now. Among the stories Count Ulrico loved to tell, there was one about Julius Spaur, an ancestor of his who, for a time, used the large hall space to practice... his tennis skills.  In 1891, the owner of the Obervaler Castle, Julius Spaur, Untervaler Castle from another branch of the family and, finding the hall sufficiently free, installed a tennis court there, not a regulation one but still functional. The red stripes are still partly visible on the hall floor. However, it was Julius himself who initiated the renovation works in the castle, and bought back previously sold furniture.  

A castle for every season

Castel Valer is one of those places where you can fully enjoy the changing seasons: romantic in spring, when the apple orchards of the Val di Non are covered in fragrant white flowers; splendid in September and October, with the walls covered in red Canadian vine leaves and surrounded by the colours of autumn; and fascinating even in winter, when the castle is immersed in silence, in the cold snowy air, but inside it warmly welcomes all guests.  

In December, the children will find the castle richly decorated for the holidays and will have the opportunity to meet Father Christmas right in the Ulrico Hall, in front of the large fireplace, where Count Ulrico Spaur used to sit...