Castello di Pergine

Pergine Castle stands on the summit of Tegazzo hill in a position from which it dominates much of the Upper Valsugana.
The first certain references to the castle date back to 845. Given its strategic importance, it was besieged and captured
numerous times from 1256 onwards, when it was set on fire by Ezzelino da Romano.
After returning into the hands of the Pergine Lords, the fief was taken over by Count Mainhardt II of Tyrol at the end of the
12th Century. It was later occupied by the Paduans before returning to Tyrolean rule. As the castle lost its strategic importance, it gradually turned into a palatial residence.
The most radical work began in 1503 and concluded in 1523. In 1531 Bernardo Clesio, Prince Bishop of the Episcopal
Principality of Trento, took over the castle and its jurisdiction, which then remained under the control of the Church of  Trentino for many centuries. The Pergine area was governed by Episcopal captains from noble families, including the Firmians, Madruzzos and Wolckensteins. The last Episcopal functionary to govern the area was Giuseppe Antonio Girardi, in office from 1795 to 1805. After the Episcopal Principality of Trento was abolished, the castle was incorporated into the Episcopal estate and was entrusted to families of farmers.
Throughout this period, the contents of the castle were either lost or damaged and parts of the building itself were destroyed.
In 1905 the castle was sold to a German company that began a somewhat haphazard restoration project, which continued until it was ordered to cease in 1913. After the Second World War, the castle was acquired by the Pergine Municipality, which sold it in 1956 to a group of private entrepreneurs, who transformed it into a hotel and restaurant. Many secrets and legends live on in the ancient stones of the castle. One legend tells of ghostly apparitions in one
of the rooms in the palace of a mysterious woman dressed in white, while others are more bloodcurdling, such as the stories of the torture that prisoners were subjected to: in one of the cells, water dripped at an inexorable cadence from a hole in the ceiling onto the immobilised heads of the chained victims below, who died in unspeakable agony.