TRENTO, THE CAPITAL OF THE PRINCE-BISHOPRIC MALÉ-TRENTO: KM. 60 FERROVIA TRENTO-MALÉ
Piazza Duomo in Trento
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rento (A.P.T. - Tourist Office: Tel. 39 0461 216000) is easy to reach from the Val di Sole even without a car thanks to the Trento-Malé-Marilleva 900 light railway (Tel. 39 0463 901150). The journey takes about 80 minutes from Malé along a peaceful and interesting route through the lower Val di Sole and all of the Val di Non, with dozens of villages and old castles rendering this scenery unique. The 20 kilometres of this route running through the Val d’Adige are framed by the splendid vineyards of the Piana Rotaliana and the heights of Paganella (2125 m).Trento was a Roman municipium and important vestiges of this period remain, such as the subterranean complex of Sass, which allows visitors to walk along stretches of Roman streets and even inspect the sewage system. The Porta Veronensis gateway is reached from the Museo Diocesano in Piazza del Duomo.There is little evidence of subsequent rulers – the Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks. The real life of the city began when, with its surrounding regions, it was made part of the Holy Roman Empire around the year 970, later becoming a Prince-Bishopric (from 1004 to 1802). The two spheres of influence, ecclesiastical and lay, which ruled side-by-side in this little Alpine state for 800 years, were represented respectively by the Duomo (Cathedral, with the neighbouring Palazzo Pretorio) and the Castello del Buon Consiglio (Tel. 39 0461 233770). It was in this fortified residence that the Prince Bishops lived from the 13th century on. Its complex layout is the result of various subsequent buildings being added to an original pre-Romanesque nucleus. The Magno Palazzo, built on the orders of the prince and cardinal Bernardo Clesio during the 16th century, was added to the old castle and the Giunta Albertiana followed in the late 17th century. Its interior houses a number of museums and the so-called Lapidario collection of marbles in
its aristocratic chambers (known as camere or stùe). During the reign of Bernardo the rooms and chambers were amply decorated with frescoes executed by the brothers Dosso and Battista Dossi, Marcello Fogolino and Girolamo Romanino and the terracotta decoration of the sculptor Zaccaria Zacchi.Worthy of separate attention in their own right are the frescoed pictures of the Torre dell’Aquila, a splendid example of international Gothic architecture with its ‘Cycle of the Months’ painted by the Bohemian maestro Venceslao around 1390. The cathedral is set in the middle of the city centre, a wonderful exThe ample of the work of Buonconsiglio the Lombard Comacine Castle Master Adamo d’Arogno and his sons. It has its origins as the burial place of the Bishop Saint Vigilius in the 5th century but was continually rebuilt until it acquired its 13th century shape during the reign of the Prince-Bishop Federico Vanga.The exterior is dominated by a large bell-tower finished during the baroque period and by the northern rose window with its famous ‘Wheel of Fortune’, as well as setting within the square.The interior has a severe linearity and manages to transmit a feeling of great serenity. Next to the 18th-century ciborium (canopy) of the main altar is the entranceway to a subterranean chamber where the various building stages from the original construction on can be traced more clearly. The Palazzo Pretorio contains the sumptuous Museo Diocesano (Diocesan Museum - Tel. 39 0461 234419), with 16th-century Flemish tapestries and art treasures from the Cathedral. Many other features add to the beauty of the city: the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore and San Lorenzo, the Piazza Fiera (or market square) and the Palazzo delle Albere, which now houses the Trento collection of the world-famous MART (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto).
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