Italy · 13th century
Brunnenburg (Italian: Castel Fontana, Castel Brunnenburg) is a 13th-century castle in the province of South Tyrol, in northern Italy.
Schloss Brunnenburg is situated above the city of Merano, on the outskirts of the municipality of Tirol. Originally built circa 1250, the castle was completely restored and updated in the mid-20th century by Boris de Rachewiltz, an Egyptologist, and his wife Mary, daughter of the poet Ezra Pound and violinist Olga Rudge; Mary lived there until her death in 2026. Surrounding the castle is the family's vineyard.
Pound stayed with his daughter and her family at the castle in 1958 after he returned from the United States. It was there that he wrote the last six of his 116 "cantos" of The Cantos.
The Ezra Pound Centre for Literature was established at the castle by his daughter, where students come from all over the world to study the poet's works. A large guesthouse on the castle grounds is used as temporary housing for students, usually for a semester at a time.
Text adapted from “Brunnenburg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Brunnenburg ranks #3,086 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #242 of the 555 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1090 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,448 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. 9 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Innsbruck, 67 km away. It is one of the 30 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of South Tyrol. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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