The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle
First published in 2018
Trauttmansdorff castle near the town of Meran has a long history and is well known for the visits of Kaiserin Sisi. After changing ownership quite often over the years, it nowadays belongs to the Province of South Tyrol. They decided to renovate the buildings (used as a museum now and included in the fee), but they also set up a garden that is now the key touristic highlight of the region. 400.000 people are visiting this place every year.
Knowing that we started early and arrived there only a few minutes after the official opening at 9:00. Being that early also had the benefit that it was easy to get parking. We walked to the entrance, paid the fee of 13 EUR per person (parking is on top), and crossed the bridge over the main road to come to the garden area itself.
If you look for this place at Google maps or so, you can hardly imagine how big it is. It is divided into different sections and even without taking pictures, it will take you hours to walk all the different ways. The range of different gardens (there should be around 80 different ones) is huge - from water gardens to cactus gardens and from landscapes of South Tyrol to an Asian rice paddy and tea plantation.
Aside from all the flowers, you can also find a grotto with multimedia presentations, an aviary, an indoor terrarium, and many other things. By the way: Food was astonishingly good for such a place.
So if you are in the area a visit is a clear recommendation. Just be there early and try to avoid the weekends.
