On Easter, we walked up the hill to Schloss Tirol, the castle from which the entire Tirolean region gets its name. Though people have lived in these mountains for thousands of years (more on the Iceman later), the Romans built the first churches on this hill in the 400s (you can visit the dig in process just behind the castle).
Parts of the existing structure date back to the 1000s, and the wall is thought to be the oldest castle wall in Europe. The portals (artwork around the doors) are especially fine examples of Romanesque art.
A sidenote about religious art: there are lots and lots of statues of Jesus in this region--in churches, alongside roads, on dwellings, and on walking paths. When we went through the pictured portal at Schloss Tirol, J, as usual, pointed out "that statue with the beard." In Venice's Accademia gallery, he loudly noted other anatomical qualities of the statues.
We plan on numerous future visits to Schloss Tirol. On Easter, we also enjoyed lunch at the gasthaus just below the castle (with Brunnenburg wine and local vegetables), and the nice views from the castle hill. I should say, lest you think our weather is as good as it looks in the pictures, that this day was particularly windy--we had to hang onto the toddler near the edges. (Of course our weather is usually as good as it looks). Pictured is our little village of Dorf Tirol surrounded by grapevines and fruit trees.
Among my favorite views from the hill is of our castle. And speaking of things Roman, our upstairs host Mary has been filling us in on artifacts around Brunnenburg. She recently mentioned that a lion statue by a small fountain in our courtyard (the one J likes to PET) is Roman! And she suggested that we lift the tablecloth on a round table in the corner of our own apartment. We did, finding a glass case of Roman pottery shards.
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