Avio Castle in Sabbionara

AVIO CASTLE IN SABBIONARA

Avio Castle, or Sabbionara Castle, is one of the most famous and ancient fortified monuments in Trentino. It is located in the hamlet of Sabbionara d'Avio and thanks to its imposing vault dominates Vallagarina. The castle was donated in 1977 by Countess Emanuela of Castelbarco to the Italian Environment Fund, which manages and cares for maintenance.

The castle consists of three walled enclosures surrounding the defense system as a crown and can boast 5 towers, including the picadora, where capital condemnations were executed in the past by hanging; its irregular yet harmonious perimeter leans back to the ground following its altitude difference. Inside the walls the streets are bordered by walls, terraces, covered passages and open towers; the doors, the walls and the interiors are illuminated by remarkable frescoes. Around the mighty doorman from the eleventh century, there are numerous buildings including the House of Guards, the Chapel, the Baronale Palace and the House of Love on the top of the doorman, all frescoed.

Scholars have identified in the frescoes the hand of two different artists, with their teams; the first one, already active in the Dominican church of Bolzano, is the decorator of the House of Love: a cycle of frescoes of great quality, full of allusions, allegories and references. Perhaps after two or three decades, another artist works in the castle, a simpler and popular vein than the previous; the battles of the Guard House have to be with him. Further discoveries were made during careful restorations: the examination of ultraviolet light frescoes revealed the presence of preparatory drawings under current paintings.

The House of Guards frescoes represent the arts of war necessary for the formation of the knight. They are the work of a Trentino teacher of the mid-14th century who is affected by both the Veronese painting and the transalpine style (marked contours and violent lights).
The frescoes of the House of Love in the doorman, refined and rich in a learned symbolism (courtesy painting), are attributable to a Venetian-Emilian painter living in the middle of the 14th century

source wikipedia