Castel Firmian

It stands north-west of Mezzocorona, among the vineyards of the Piana Rotaliana, at the foot of the rock on which Castel San Gottardo stands. It was built in 1480 by Nicolò I di Firmian, captain of the Val di Non and of the Giudicarie, who had married Dorotea, the last heir of the Kronmetz, the lords of Mezzocorona. Until then the Firmian had lived up there, at San Gottardo, but it had become too inconvenient to reach: Nicolò had the old house pulled down and built a tower with a comfortable residence beside it, enclosed by walls and moats. A ravelin detached from the main body controlled the old Roman road that crossed the Noce towards the Val di Non. On the tower he had the coat of arms of the Firmian carved together with that of the Kronmetz, and it can still be seen.

Around 1650 the castle was raised by one storey, the narrow windows were replaced, a wing joined to the tower was added to the south-east and a two-storey hall was created inside: the late Gothic gave way to the Baroque. The moats were filled in; the servant's house and the stable came later. The sentry walkways and the crenellated walls have remained as they were.

In the tower is the chapel of San Giovanni Nepomuceno, with a wooden statue of San Gottardo that came from the castle above and portraits of the family; one is dedicated to the knight Leopoldo and tells that in 933 the emperor Enrico I sent him against the pagans with four hundred knights. The best-known Firmian is Carlo Gottardo, born in 1716 and died in 1782, governor of Austrian Lombardy, patron of men of letters and one of the first supporters of Mozart. The heirs of the counts still live here.